The ghosts of HeLa: How cell line misidentification contaminates the scientific literature.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Horbach SPJM
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5638414 | biostudies-literature | 2017
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
The ghosts of HeLa: How cell line misidentification contaminates the scientific literature.
Horbach Serge P J M SPJM Halffman Willem W
PloS one 20171012 10
While problems with cell line misidentification have been known for decades, an unknown number of published papers remains in circulation reporting on the wrong cells without warning or correction. Here we attempt to make a conservative estimate of this 'contaminated' literature. We found 32,755 articles reporting on research with misidentified cells, in turn cited by an estimated half a million other papers. The contamination of the literature is not decreasing over time and is anything but res ...[more]
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