“THERE is no excuse for the ongoing use of contaminated cell lines.” This was the message of a recent editorial in New Scientist, accompanying a news item that reported how impostor cells continue to wreck research into vaccines, cancer and much more (20 September, p 5 and p 8). I showed the comment and report to the UK’s science minister, Lord Sainsbury, and asked for his views.
Sainsbury replied that the Medical Research Council has told him it knows of a few cases where researchers have used incorrectly identified cell lines. However, it maintains the problem is not as…
