Medical Writing, Editing & Grantsmanship

Notice is hereby given that ORI and the Assistant Secretary for Health have taken final action in the following case:

Rashanda Robertson, former Research Coordinator, Department of General Medicine, Emory University, engaged in research misconduct in research supported by grant K23HL077597. Specifically, the Respondent admitted that she fabricated enrollment forms to create enrollees who did not exist and falsified the data of some enrollees who did not exist to cover up the data fabrication. To create the fabricated enrollment forms, the Respondent:

• Identified patients who were eligible for the study based on their charge screens but who were considered ineligible after a face-to-face screen;
• Obtained patients’ names from the screening records and used the names to obtain the personal information (address and telephone numbers) on these patients from the site hospital’s pharmacy online system;
• Created a fabricated enrollment form for each of the non-existent enrollees; specifically, Respondent fabricated a participant’s name by using the name of a patient who had failed screening and then fabricated the date of enrollment by using the date of the patient’s screening failure; using this method, Respondent fabricated the participant names, personal information, and enrollment dates on twenty-eight (28) enrollment forms;
• Dispersed the fabricated enrollment forms among those enrollment forms, beginning around participant number 136 through 212;
• Falsified the numbering of the enrollment forms for some individuals who had actually been enrolled to disperse the fabricated enrollment forms among the authentic enrollment forms; Respondent falsified the status of some actual participants to include them in the intervention group, even though they had not actually received the intervention; Respondent falsified the data on both the enrollment form and the follow-up form for 16 participants between numbers 137 and 198;
• Respondent falsified data on the enrollment forms and follow-up forms for participant numbers 153 and 154 by changing their enrollment numbers.

ORI acknowledges that the Respondent was remorseful.

Fortunately, the K23 PI has been quite productive in terms of publications (per RePORTER Results tab) and has taken a new position with promotion … but no R01 or other mechanism funding as yet (though K23 was suspended/extended from Sept 2007 to June 2010, probably due to change in institution and misconduct investigation).

A three-fer again. The different terms used reflect the timing of the misconduct (scientific if the misconduct occurred before June 2005, research if after June 2005) due to a change in regulatory definitions.

Notice is hereby given that Zhong Bin Deng, former postdoctoral fellow at Medical College of Georgia, whose written and oral admissions and expressed remorse, engaged in scientific misconduct in research supported by grant P01AI42288 by falsifying research results reported in a paper published (and soon after retracted) in Nature Medicine. Specifically, in Figure 1(a), the Respondent falsified the Aire +/+ (thymus and liver) flow cytometry plots by substituting Aire +/- (thymus and liver) flow cytometry plots that were altered to disguise their origins and falsified the Aire -/- (bone marrow) flow cytometry plot by substituting the Aire +/- (bone marrow) flow cytometry plot, also altered to disguise its origin. In supplementary Figure 2, the Respondent also falsified flow cytometry plots.

Notice is hereby given that Nagendra S. Ningaraj, PhD, former Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery and Cancer Biology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine engaged in scientific misconduct by falsifying MALDI-MS images and mass spectral tracings and associated text in Figure 21 reported in grant application U54CA119421 and by falsifying MALDI-MS images in a presentation during the American Association for Cancer Research meeting held on April 16-20, 2005, which cited support from grants R25CA92943 and P50CA098131. Respondent reversed the images for the control and minoxidil-treated brains; reported mass spectral tracings as having been obtained from brain tumors in Gleevec-treated mice that had been pretreated with minoxidil, while in fact they were pretreated with another potassium channel opener, NS1619, and Respondent falsely stated the minoxidil pretreatment caused an 8-fold increase in Gleevec delivery to brain tumors (compared to non-minoxidil pretreated tumors); and juxtaposed the reversed MALDI-MS images (obtained with mioxidil) with the mass spectral tracings (obtained with NS1619) in the same figure and failed to report that the images and spectra were actually obtained in totally different experiments, performed on different dates and with different K\+\ agonist pretreatments.

Notice is hereby given that Norma Couvertier, former Research Assistant II, APT Foundation, engaged in research misconduct in research supported by award R37DA015969 by falsifying and fabricating data that were reported on Participant Urine Monitoring and Breathalyzer Result Forms completed by the Respondent for 32 of the enrolled study participants in the computer Based Training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy research study. A total of 253 alcohol breathalyzer results were recorded for the 32 participants as being 0.000 indicating no alcohol detected, rather than the code 999 used when no breathalyzer test was done. ORI also found that Ms. Couvetier, on 253 occasions, with 32 different study participants, falsified alcohol breathalyzer test results and knowingly and consistently entered a false negative test (indicated by 0.000) rather than identifying the result as a missing data collection (indicated by code 999). ORI acknowledges Ms. Couvetier’s verbal admissions and willingness to cooperate and assist during the APT Foundation’s investigation.

The blog post title and the news conveyed come from Nature, which “obtained documents from a source at ONR that relate to the debarment” of Rusi Taleyarkhan at Purdue University, who in 2002 reported in Science that nuclear fusion reactions could be triggered by firing sound waves into deuterated acetone – a claim that has never been independently verified. But let me back up.

This complicated and colorful case began in 2006 and was tracked throughout 2007-2008 by Science and Nature. The NYT reported on Congressional involvement, which Nature followed with interest. An earlier post here tracks a long, heated exchange among Taleyarkhan, Purdue, the House Oversight Committee, et al., with more dogged coverage by Nature.

It took Purdue four investigations to find Taleyarkhan guilty of misconduct (citing work from his own lab as ‘independent’ confirmation of his findings and adding the name of a student to a publication when they had not contributed to the research), strip him of his endowed professorship, and limit his role in mentoring students in July 2008. Taleyarkhan ultimately lost his appeal, but this did not stop him from receiving an award from the NSF (ended in Aug 2009).

It seems, however, this will not happen again:

The ONR, which had funded part of Taleyarkhan’s research, has now reviewed Purdue’s investigation. Its conclusions state that Taleyarkhan’s misconduct was “so severe as to merit debarment” from federal funding. Although the ruling was made in May, when the debarment came into effect, no public announcement was made.

Myers Vasquez, a spokesman for the US Navy, says that Taleyarkhan’s name has now been added to the ‘Excluded Parties List’ that government agencies are required to check before making awards.

His bubble has finally burst.