Retraction: CTL Activation Using the Natural Low-Affinity Epitope 222–229 from Tyrosinase-Related Protein 1 Leads to Tumor Rejection

The authors wish to retract the article titled “CTL Activation Using the Natural Low-Affinity Epitope 222–229 from Tyrosinase-Related Protein 1 Leads to Tumor Rejection,” which was published in the April 1, 2009 issue of Cancer Research (1).

In the course of investigating suspicious patterns of experimental results in the laboratory, a systematic and in-depth study of key findings in this article was carried out using blind protocols. In these repeat studies, no evidence was found to support our original conclusions that B7-DCXAb modulates dendritic cell functions. We do not believe our failure to reproduce our earlier findings is the result of a technical problem. A member of the B7-DCXAb investigative team, Dr. Suresh Radhakrishnan, who was involved in or had access to all work on this subject, was found in a formal institutional investigation to have engaged in scientific misconduct in unpublished experiments by manipulating another investigator’s experiment involving the B7-DCXAb reagent. This finding of misconduct together with our inability to reproduce key findings using blinded protocols has undermined our confidence in our published reports. We seek therefore to retract this body of work.

Kevin D. Pavelko

Michael J. Hansen

Larry R. Pease

Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN