Oncotarget

Retraction:

Retraction: Inhibition of YAP function overcomes BRAF inhibitor resistance in melanoma cancer stem cells

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Oncotarget. 2025; 16:865-865. https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.28792

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Matthew L. Fisher1, Daniel Grun1, Gautam Adhikary1, Wen Xu1, Richard L. Eckert1,2,3,4

1 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, 21201, USA
2 Department of Dermatology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, 21201, USA
3 Department of Reproductive Biology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, 21201, USA
4 The Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, 21201, USA

Published: December 31, 2025

Copyright: © 2025 Fisher et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

This article has been retracted: The Office of Research Integrity Investigation (NIH) concluded that Richard L. Eckert, Ph.D. engaged in research misconduct by intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly falsifying and/or fabricating data in the thirteen (13) papers published in different journals and two (2) PHS grant applications. One paper was published in Oncotarget. Specifically, in Figure 3F the bands in rows 4 and 7 of the A375-PLX-R right-side panel, representing expression of TAZ-P (row 4) and ERK1/2 (row 7), are falsified and/or fabricated by using unrelated bands from a source image representing different proteins in an unrelated experiment. The University of Maryland investigation also concluded that “the Figure 3A, 3B, 3F and 4D are fabricated in order to support the data presented in the article.”

The initial request from the authors was for a correction, citing a mistaken placement of images and providing original blots. However, the Scientific Integrity Office conducted an independent verification of the results and discovered additional instances of image manipulation:

  1. Duplication of Western blots in Figure 4G and 4H (b-actin in A375-PLX-R cells).
  2. Reuse of the YAP-1 blot from Figure 1F in Figure 3A, illustrating a different experiment.

In light of the number of necessary corrections and in agreement with the recommendations from the ORI (NIH), the Editorial decision has been made to retract this paper.

Original article: Oncotarget. 2017; 8:110257–110272. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.22628.


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