Shanghai University removes dean for fabricating data

Shanghai University has removed the dean of its Institute of Translational Medicine from his post and terminated the employment of a postdoctoral researcher following an investigation that confirmed data fabrication in a paper published in Nature Nanotechnology, the university announced on Friday.

The probe was launched after questions were raised online about the integrity of data in a paper that appeared in the journal in February 2026.

An investigative panel composed of experts from within and outside the university examined experimental data and interviewed relevant personnel.

The inquiry confirmed that all data processing for the nine disputed figures and charts was carried out by Zhou, a co-first author of the paper and a postdoctoral fellow at the university's Institute of Translational Medicine.

Of the nine disputed items, one chart was found to contain fabricated data, an act that constitutes academic misconduct, the university said.

One other chart involved mislabeled column headings, while the remaining seven charts had data that could be traced to original sources but were not disclosed in a standard way.

Su, the corresponding author and dean of the Institute of Translational Medicine, along with Wei and Bai, co-corresponding authors and faculty members of the same institute, were found to have failed in their oversight duties and in ensuring the authenticity and standardization of the data, according to the investigation.

Shanghai University said it has terminated its employment contract with Zhou. Su has been removed from both his position as dean of the Institute of Translational Medicine and as director of the Shanghai University branch of the National Center for Translational Medicine (Shanghai). He has also been barred from promotions, research funding applications and awards for 12 months, and suspended from supervising graduate students for the same period.

Wei and Bai received disciplinary warnings.

The university reiterated its zero-tolerance stance on academic misconduct, vowing to strengthen research integrity education, improve data supervision systems, and foster a rigorous academic environment.