In July 2022, concerns were raised by Matthew Schrag, a Vanderbilt University neuroscientist, that certain images in the 2006 Nature paper were manipulated in the paper co-authored by Ashes postdoctoral Sylvain Lesné, whom she hired in 2002. These concerns were published in an article in Science authored by Charles Piller which questioned the association between the Aβ*56 protein and dementia symptoms. Ashe stated in July 2022 via email that "it is devastating to discover that a colleague may have misled me and the scientific community [... it is also] distressing that a major scientific journal has blatantly misrepresented the implications of my work." Ashe has stated that the edited images, which she agrees "should not have occurred", do not change the conclusions of the paper. No image inconsistencies have been found in other work published by Ashe without' Lesné as a co-author.
UMN is investigating the reports as of May 2023. The editors of Nature responded with a July 14, 2022 note stating they were aware of and investigating the concerns raised, that a "further editorial response [would] follow as soon as possible", and that "readers are advised to use caution when using results reported therein". The NIH, where Schrag lodged the whistleblower report, is also investigating the matter. Retraction Watch states that Ashe co-authored with Lesné other disputed papers, and that the authors in the disputed work do not overlap except for two from UMN Department of Neuroscience.
In May of 2023, the Star Tribune reported that Ashe was using new techniques to re-do the work reported in the 2006 Nature study, and that she stated "its my responsibility to establish the truth of what weve published".