An investigation published in the journal Science finds strong signs that a key area of Alzheimer's disease research might stem from fraudulent results.
The alleged fabrications may have sent research and funding down a false trail for 16 years.
The first paper appeared in 2006 in the prestigious journal Nature. At a time when research into amyloid plaques was struggling, its results helped drive interest in an emerging target: small, repeating molecules called oligomers, which the authors strongly linked to certain Alzheimer's symptoms.
Paul Coleman of the ASU-Banner Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center said the Science article overstates the papers' importance given how much evidence has since confirmed those connections, even if the underlying causes remain unknown.
Still, the publications have garnered thousands of citations and helped spur hundreds of millions of dollars in NIH-funded projects.
