[BostonCard]

The big deal are these papers: https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126...ce.1058445 and https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1059391.  Tessier-Levine is the senior author here, and is accountable for it.  Moreover, they were published in one of the top two journals (along with Nature), so they are a BIG deal papers.
BC

Wow, I just couldn't believe that he would have been lead author on an article with falsified images.  But I stand corrected.  Thank you for pointing this out, BC.

BC didn't say he was the lead author on those 2 papers.   BC said he was the senior author.    The lead author was his post-doc.

By convention in biomedical research, the senior author is listed last; they are typically the professor (in an academic setting) that supervised the more junior person (usually a graduate student or post-doctoral scholar) who actually carried out the experiments and did most of the authoring for the paper (who is typically listed first). Being the first or last author on a paper is generally a big deal, and the expectation is that those authors are accountable for the work.  In theory, everyone who puts their name on a paper is basically saying they stand by the work, it would be hard to be completely double checking the accuracy of everything if you are a middle author.  But the first and last authors absolutely need to. 

BC

[BostonCard]

The big deal are these papers: https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126...ce.1058445 and https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1059391.  Tessier-Levine is the senior author here, and is accountable for it.  Moreover, they were published in one of the top two journals (along with Nature), so they are a BIG deal papers.
BC

Wow, I just couldn't believe that he would have been lead author on an article with falsified images.  But I stand corrected.  Thank you for pointing this out, BC.

BC didn't say he was the lead author on those 2 papers.   BC said he was the senior author.    The lead author was his post-doc.

By convention in biomedical research, the senior author is listed last; they are typically the professor (in an academic setting) that supervised the more junior person (usually a graduate student or post-doctoral scholar) who actually carried out the experiments and did most of the authoring for the paper (who is typically listed first). Being the first or last author on a paper is generally a big deal, and the expectation is that those authors are accountable for the work.  In theory, everyone who puts their name on a paper is basically saying they stand by the work, it would be hard to be completely double checking the accuracy of everything if you are a middle author.  But the first and last authors absolutely need to. 

BC