Dr. Haruko Obokata held a news conference in Osaka on Wednesday, flanked by two legal representatives.

The young scientist at the center of a scandal over stem cell research rejected accusations of ill intent and fraud, saying she’s confident the conclusions of her research remain valid.

Obokata is accused by Japan’s Riken institute of manipulating research on a new way of producing stem cells. Her papers were published in January in the journal Nature.

In a prepared statement, Obokata apologized for what she described as a large number of errors and lapses in her articles. But she denied any attempt to falsify data.

Dr. Haruko Obokata: "I beg you to understand that the experiments were conducted reliably, based on actual data. I did not harbor any ill intent whatsoever while completing my articles."

Obokata also maintains she was able to replicate and verify the process to create so-called STAP cells.

"I have personally succeeded in creating STAP cells more than 200 times."

The researcher apologized for the major distraction caused by the scandal.

She filed on Tuesday an appeal against the conclusions of the Riken institute. She’s asking for her case to be re-examined, and refuses to retract her articles.