I am saddened that Prof. Sasai felt the need to take his life over this debacle.
How must his family feel?
As WaPo reported earlier Dr. Obokata was the product of one this country's premier research institutions:
Harvard University.
She began research on stem cells as part of her PhD-program there.
Her thesis adviser and co-author on the papers in question claimed in his retraction letter to Nature
that he and his brother were mainly responsible for developing the hypotheses that Dr. Obokata continued to test after returning to Japan with her newly-minted degree.
It must have been obvious to him that there was no way to provide the guidance and oversight that Dr. Obokata needed to carry out his ideas two oceans away.
Therefore he, and not Prof. Sasai, bears major responsibility for this disaster.
Prof. Sasai's greatest mistake may have been that he trusted in the Harvard brand.
