BMJ 2014;348:g4249 doi: 10.1136/bmj.g4249 (Published 25 June 2014)
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NEWS Researcher is arrested for falsifying his results Owen Dyer Montreal
A former researcher at Iowa State University who spiked rabbit blood samples to make it look as though a potential HIV vaccine was working, earning millions in US federal grants, has been arrested and indicted in a federal court on four felony charges of making false statements. Dong-Pyou Han, 57, an assistant professor, added human and rabbit HIV antibodies to rabbit serum samples to make it appear that an experimental HIV vaccine had stimulated a broad immune response. He also altered data files to convey the same impression and reported false results to his colleagues, according to the findings of the Office of Research Integrity and of a university inquiry.1 2 The results were hailed as groundbreaking and were reported at seven symposiums between 2010 and 2012, but other scientists soon began to complain that the results could not be replicated. In January 2013 Iowa State University began an investigation that soon proved that the samples were spiked. The fraud was eventually traced to Han, who resigned, denouncing himself as a “foolish coward” in a two page letter of apology.
Investigators believe that he acted alone. In emails released to the Des Moines Register under a freedom of information request, his team leader Michael Cho, who brought Han to Iowa State when the two were headhunted from Case Western University, told a federal health official that he would try to determine whether the spiked samples were “due to stupidity or intentional misconduct of a person; perhaps both.” Later, when Han admitted his role in an affidavit, Cho wrote that the situation was “devastating news for me, but I think it is better for me to have it discovered before I published it. I am just mad that I wasn’t able to discover it sooner. I wasted so much time on this.” One retraction issued from the case, a poster presentation in Retrovirology.3 The team also reported its promising data in
For personal use only: See rights and reprints http://www.bmj.com/permissions
several grant applications and progress reports. The federal indictment charges that $10m (£6m; €7.4m) of a total $19m the team received in federal money was granted as a direct result of Han’s manipulations and the promise they held out.
Han was one of just 11 researchers to face administrative sanction for research misconduct from the Office of Research Integrity in 2013. His punishment, a three year ban on participation in federally funded research, was the stiffest the agency handed out that year but was criticized as unduly lenient by Iowa senator Chuck Grassley, who asked why federal authorities had not launched criminal proceedings or acted to recover the federal grant money. The government has not typically sought to recoup grant money from universities in previous cases of research misconduct.
Grassley’s criticism of the Office of Research Integrity was followed within days by the resignation of the agency’s director, David Wright, who alleged in a leaked resignation letter that the office was hamstrung by a “dysfunctional” and “highly political” bureaucracy at the Department of Health and Human Services. The charges now laid against Han, who was arrested in Ohio, carry a maximum penalty of five years each. A letter to Senator Grassley from federal health officials said that Iowa State University must repay $496 832 of the grant money from the National Institutes of Health, the amount paid in salary to Han. 1 2 3
Office of Research Integrity. Case summary: Han, Dong-Pyou. http://ori.hhs.gov/content/ case-summary-han-dong-pyou. Iowa State University. 2013-10-15 inquiry report. www.scribd.com/doc/201057701/201310-15-Inquiry-Report-Redacted-Reduced-Size. Han D, Habte H, Qin Y, Takamoto K, LaBranche C, Montefiori D, et al. Retraction: eliciting broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV-1 that target gp41 MPER. Retrovirology 2014;11:16.
Cite this as: BMJ 2014;348:g4249 © BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 2014
Subscribe: http://www.bmj.com/subscribe
Page 1 of 1
News
NEWS Researcher is arrested for falsifying his results Owen Dyer Montreal
A former researcher at Iowa State University who spiked rabbit blood samples to make it look as though a potential HIV vaccine was working, earning millions in US federal grants, has been arrested and indicted in a federal court on four felony charges of making false statements. Dong-Pyou Han, 57, an assistant professor, added human and rabbit HIV antibodies to rabbit serum samples to make it appear that an experimental HIV vaccine had stimulated a broad immune response. He also altered data files to convey the same impression and reported false results to his colleagues, according to the findings of the Office of Research Integrity and of a university inquiry.1 2 The results were hailed as groundbreaking and were reported at seven symposiums between 2010 and 2012, but other scientists soon began to complain that the results could not be replicated. In January 2013 Iowa State University began an investigation that soon proved that the samples were spiked. The fraud was eventually traced to Han, who resigned, denouncing himself as a “foolish coward” in a two page letter of apology.
Investigators believe that he acted alone. In emails released to the Des Moines Register under a freedom of information request, his team leader Michael Cho, who brought Han to Iowa State when the two were headhunted from Case Western University, told a federal health official that he would try to determine whether the spiked samples were “due to stupidity or intentional misconduct of a person; perhaps both.” Later, when Han admitted his role in an affidavit, Cho wrote that the situation was “devastating news for me, but I think it is better for me to have it discovered before I published it. I am just mad that I wasn’t able to discover it sooner. I wasted so much time on this.” One retraction issued from the case, a poster presentation in Retrovirology.3 The team also reported its promising data in
For personal use only: See rights and reprints http://www.bmj.com/permissions
several grant applications and progress reports. The federal indictment charges that $10m (£6m; €7.4m) of a total $19m the team received in federal money was granted as a direct result of Han’s manipulations and the promise they held out.
Han was one of just 11 researchers to face administrative sanction for research misconduct from the Office of Research Integrity in 2013. His punishment, a three year ban on participation in federally funded research, was the stiffest the agency handed out that year but was criticized as unduly lenient by Iowa senator Chuck Grassley, who asked why federal authorities had not launched criminal proceedings or acted to recover the federal grant money. The government has not typically sought to recoup grant money from universities in previous cases of research misconduct.
Grassley’s criticism of the Office of Research Integrity was followed within days by the resignation of the agency’s director, David Wright, who alleged in a leaked resignation letter that the office was hamstrung by a “dysfunctional” and “highly political” bureaucracy at the Department of Health and Human Services. The charges now laid against Han, who was arrested in Ohio, carry a maximum penalty of five years each. A letter to Senator Grassley from federal health officials said that Iowa State University must repay $496 832 of the grant money from the National Institutes of Health, the amount paid in salary to Han. 1 2 3
Office of Research Integrity. Case summary: Han, Dong-Pyou. http://ori.hhs.gov/content/ case-summary-han-dong-pyou. Iowa State University. 2013-10-15 inquiry report. www.scribd.com/doc/201057701/201310-15-Inquiry-Report-Redacted-Reduced-Size. Han D, Habte H, Qin Y, Takamoto K, LaBranche C, Montefiori D, et al. Retraction: eliciting broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV-1 that target gp41 MPER. Retrovirology 2014;11:16.
Cite this as: BMJ 2014;348:g4249 © BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 2014
Subscribe: http://www.bmj.com/subscribe
