Naoki Mori

Naoki Mori (森 直樹, Mori Naoki) is a Japanese virologist who worked at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. He received numerous awards for his research on human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1), a retrovirus which causes adult T-cell leukemia.

Research fraud

In 2010, RetractionWatch reported that 5 of Mori's papers had been retracted by the journal Infection and Immunity. (The New York Times put the figure at six.)The papers, which were published between 2000 and 2009, described studies on H. pylori. Mori was banned from publishing articles in journals operated by the American Society for Microbiology after it was determined that he had manipulated data and images in a number of articles. As of October 2011, thirty papers coauthored by Mori have been retracted, including 5 from Infection and Immunity, 7 from the International Journal of Cancer, 2 from Blood, 1 from Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications titled Downregulation of citrin, a mitochondrial AGC, is associated with apoptosis of hepatocytes. Mori took "full responsibility" for "multiple inaccurate and inappropriately duplicated" images, and was dismissed from his university post in August 2010.

After the dismissal in 2010, Naoki Mori was rehired and resumed publishing. Recent publication included research paper titled 'Honokiol induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis via inhibition of survival signals in adult T-cell leukemia'.