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A recent research suggests that more than half of all the scientific studies conducted each year are worthless as they cannot be replicated. Because replicability is an important factor in the trustworthiness of a medical study, the failure to do so leads to wastage of billions of dollars every year.

During the study, Amanda Capes-Davis of CellBank Australia and her colleagues analysed scientific studies from across the world to come to this startling conclusion. The team found that one in six researchers who use human cells in tests have s been actually using the wrong or contaminated cells, rendering their research worthless.

The research team further revealed that in 2010, as many as 360 cell lines studied were contaminated. By 2014, the number had gone up to 438. According to the researchers, the results of these medical studies using cell lines are now worthless.

The contamination of cell lines has been the subject of previous studies too. Earlier studies have shown that the contamination rate in a particular cell bank can extend across 20 per cent to 85 per cent of all cell lines. Though cell line contamination is not the only reason for flawed research, its elimination will help improve critical research as in the field of cancer.

One solution for elimination of contaminated cell lines has been proposed by Leonoard Freedman, President of the Global Biological Standards Institute. He suggests better guidelines on studies involving cell lines. He further underlines the need for funding agencies to fund only projects with stringent methods as well as training of young scientists.

Several attempts have been made recently to measure the efficacy of research studies, including in the field of education. The US initiative “What Works Clearinghouse,” for instance, has found that just about 10 per cent of education impact studies meet the narrow definitions of (positivist) science.

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