(The American Journal of Human Genetics 88, 778–787; June 10, 2011)
The United States Office of Research Integrity (US ORI) found that Andrew R. Cullinane, Ph.D., “falsified and/or fabricated the results in Figure 3C, by using the same gel images to represent expression of PLDN in fibroblasts and melanocytes.” This finding was published in the US Federal Register (81 FR 59642) on August 30, 2016:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/08/30/2016-20834/findings-of-researchmisconduct.
Dr. Cullinane entered into a voluntary agreement with the US ORI and his former employer, the US National Institutes of Health. This agreement included the correction or retraction of the AJHG paper. AJHG policy requires retraction of papers where falsification and/or fabrication has been demonstrated. William A. Gahl, director of the laboratory involved, is therefore retracting this article on behalf of the author team. The authors apologize to the community for this publication.
Andrew R. Cullinane did not respond to correspondence about this retraction.