On April 16, Tongji University issued a stern statement through its official channels regarding the widely discussed case of alleged academic misconduct involving Professor Wang, dean of the School of Life Sciences and Technology and a distinguished professor under the Ministry of Education\u2019s \u201cChangjiang Scholars\u201d program. The university announced that it has formally established a special investigation team to conduct a comprehensive inquiry. The statement emphasized Tongji University\u2019s \u201czero tolerance\u201d stance toward academic misconduct, stressing that once the allegations are verified, strict action will be taken in accordance with relevant laws, regulations, and institutional rules, with no leniency. This announcement marks the formal entry of a controversy\u2014sparked by revelations from a science blogger and public questioning by prominent scholars\u2014into official university procedures, placing a once-celebrated \u201cacademic star,\u201d who had published twice in Nature within a single year, into the most serious integrity crisis of his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The controversy was triggered by a series of videos posted on social media by the self-media blogger \u201cGeng Tongxue Jiang Gushi.\u201d In these videos, the blogger conducted detailed comparisons of several high-impact papers published by Wang\u2019s team in recent years, pointing out issues such as repeated use of images, abnormal data distributions, and logical inconsistencies. The videos quickly caused a stir in the scientific community and on academic discussion platforms. Internet users followed up by discovering that concerns about Wang\u2019s papers had already appeared sporadically as early as 2025 on PubPeer, an internationally known anonymous academic review site. However, these concerns only gained overwhelming momentum recently under public scrutiny, ultimately forcing the parties involved to respond directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Public attention peaked on April 15, when the well-known biologist Rao Yi commented on the issue via his personal media platform \u201cRao Discusses Science.\u201d Although his remarks were largely based on existing allegations, his considerable influence in the field lent the issue a serious tone. As a prominent figure in exposing academic fraud in China, Rao\u2019s intervention was widely interpreted as signaling both the credibility and severity of the case. Given Wang\u2019s status as a Changjiang Distinguished Professor and recipient of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, his high academic standing and broad influence have elevated the matter beyond a simple discussion of academic error to one of potential systemic scientific misconduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core of the allegations centers on two major papers published by Wang\u2019s team in Nature<\/em> between 2024 and 2025. One is titled \u201c7-Dehydrocholesterol Determines Ferroptosis Sensitivity,\u201d while the other concerns how human HDAC6 senses valine abundance to regulate DNA damage. These studies were once regarded as significant breakthroughs in cancer therapy, and Wang himself described them in interviews as the result of \u201ca decade of painstaking effort.\u201d However, critics have pointed out that some experimental data in the papers exhibit highly unusual \u201cmathematical relationships,\u201d with nearly identical differences between datasets across experimental groups and decimal distributions that do not conform to natural statistical patterns\u2014raising suspicions that the data may have been artificially generated using software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to records on PubPeer, questions about partial image duplication in the 2025 paper on valine had already been raised by peers as early as June last year. At the time, a co\u2013first author responded via the author account, attributing the issue to \u201cmisuse of images\u201d during the layout process and applying for a correction with the journal. However, as more experts joined the discussion in April this year, the focus of the allegations shifted from simple image errors to deeper concerns about data fabrication. Some analyses suggested that the statistical patterns in certain figures were nearly impossible to occur naturally, and that the research team failed to provide convincing original experimental records when confronted with questions involving raw data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In response to the growing public pressure, Wang, as the corresponding author, has recently addressed the issue on PubPeer and other channels. He stated that the team recognizes the seriousness of the situation and has initiated a re-examination of original data and experimental records. Wang acknowledged that a comprehensive review of all related data and analytical processes is underway and promised to report the findings to the editors of Nature<\/em> as soon as conclusions are reached. While this response demonstrates a degree of cooperation, it has not quelled external doubts. In the international academic community, data fabrication is often considered a \u201ccardinal sin,\u201d and any compromise on the authenticity of experimental results can lead to a complete collapse of academic credibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As one of China\u2019s top universities, Tongji University\u2019s handling of the case is under close public scrutiny. Following the April 16 statement, many faculty members and students expressed that the truth of the matter concerns not only Wang\u2019s personal academic future but also the university\u2019s reputation and the broader research culture. If a professor holding multiple national-level honors is confirmed to have committed fraud, not only would there be accountability for substantial research funding\u2014such as grants from the National Natural Science Foundation\u2014but the academic promotion system and research evaluation mechanisms behind it would also face intense criticism. The university\u2019s investigation team, led by its academic committee, is expected to conduct several weeks of rigorous verification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The incident has also sparked deeper public reflection on the \u201ccelebrification\u201d of academics and the overreliance on top-tier journals. Within the current research evaluation system, publishing in journals like Nature<\/em> or Science<\/em> is often directly tied to fame, career advancement, funding, and prestigious titles. Such high rewards may, to some extent, encourage academic opportunism, pushing some researchers\u2014under immense pressure and temptation\u2014toward data embellishment or even fabrication. Wang\u2019s rapid publication of two top-tier papers within a single year was once seen as a point of pride for Tongji\u2019s medical school, but if misconduct is confirmed, it could become a profound irony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On April 16, Tongji University issued a stern statement through its official channels regarding the widely discussed case of alleged academic misconduct involving Professor Wang, dean of the School of Life Sciences and Technology and a distinguished professor under the Ministry of Education\u2019s \u201cChangjiang Scholars\u201d program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poroschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poroschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poroschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poroschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poroschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2691"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/poroschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2693,"href":"https:\/\/poroschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691\/revisions\/2693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poroschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poroschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poroschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poroschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}