Haruko Obokata, a Japanese researcher accused of falsifying and fabricating parts of her purportedly trailblazing stem cell research papers, on Wednesday stressed confirmation of the stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency (STAP) cells.

"Symptoms of STAP cells were confirmed many times," "We have succeeded in the production of STAP cells over 200 times," Obokata told a press conference in Osaka.

Obokata, a stem-cell biologist and the lead author of the papers published earlier this year in the journal Nature, announced in late January that she and other researchers found STAP cells, which they say can grow into any tissue in the body.

However, due to allegations made on blogs, the Riken research institute started an investigation into claims of irregularities in images of her several articles.

On April 1, the Riken institute said it had found evidence of scientific misconduct including the falsification of images and plagiarism connected to portions of Obokata's papers published in the Nature in late January. Riken's investigative panel said that Obokata falsified data by cutting and pasting an image that showed the result of an experiment.

Obokata, who filed an objection over the Riken institute's conclusion on Tuesday, told the press conference that her employer 's conclusion was made without "fully understanding the real facts ".

"I thought there would be no problem as long as I could show the results properly," the 30-year-old said when she was asked to comment on cutting and pasting data.

"People say I should retract the papers, but doing so will mean that the outcome of my research is completely wrong. I can't say that to the world because the outcome is right," Obokata said.

"The experiment was conducted properly," Obokata said. "I didn' t have malicious intent in writing the papers." She added.