FINDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC MISCONDUCT
Release Date: June 27, 2001
NOTICE: NOT-OD-01-046
Department of Health and Human Services
A [Federal Register] notice beginning on page 27974 in the issue of May 21,
2001, entitled Findings of Scientific Misconduct is hereby reprinted in its
entirety to correctly represent the position of Dr. Saleh with respect to the
Voluntary Exclusion Agreement that was omitted in the original printing.
Ayman Saleh, Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh: Based on the report of an
inquiry conducted by the University of Pittsburgh and additional analysis
conducted by ORI in its oversight review, the U.S. Public Health Service
(PHS) found that Dr. Saleh, former postdoctoral research associate, School of
Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, engaged in scientific misconduct in
research supported by the National Institutes of Health.
PHS finds that Dr. Saleh falsified:
(A) data for a manuscript which purported to show Western blots of rabbit
Bcl-2 and tubulin, the blots were actually obtained from different
experiments by another researcher using antibody against Hsp70 and against
Bag-1, respectively,
(B) the label on a Western blot for Bcl-2 that he presented to the inquiry
committee as evidence that he had conducted the experiment at issue, the blot
was actually from a different experiment by a coworker,
(C) data for a laboratory figure purported to represent a rabbit PARP
cleavage blot, the data was from another experiment, and the antibody to PARP
was not available to Dr. Saleh at that time,
(D) Western blot data on pcasp-9 and p37/p35 for a manuscript on Hsp27, the
data represented experiments that could not be performed because the cell
lines were unavailable at the time, and
(E) Figure 2b, the panel that shows a Western blot of Casp-9(WT) in a
publication by Srinivasa M. Srinivasula, Ramesh Hegde, Ayman Saleh, Pinaki
Datta, Eric Shiozaki, Jijie Chais, Ryung-Ah Lee, Paul D. Robbins, Theresa
Fernandes-Alnemri, Yigong Shi, and Emad S. Alnemri. A conserved XIAP-
interaction motif in caspase-9 and Smac/DIABLO regulates caspase activity and
apoptosis. Nature 410(6824):112-116, 2001. The Figure 2b data were actually
taken from a Western blot of Bcl-XL data, in which Dr. Saleh transposed the
lanes.
The experiments examined the regulation of programmed cell death (apoptosis),
a process that is important to a better understanding of cancer. Figure 2b
in the Nature paper represented a control experiment that confirmed the
association of an X-linked gene to a particular type of apoptosis.
While neither accepting nor admitting to the findings of scientific
misconduct, Dr. Saleh has entered into a Voluntary Exclusion Agreement with
PHS in which he has voluntarily agreed for a period of three (3) years,
beginning on May 3, 2001:
(1) to exclude himself from any contracting or subcontracting with any
agency of the United States Government and from eligibility for, or
involvement in, nonprocurement transactions (e.g., grants and cooperative
agreements) of the United States Government as defined in 45 C.F.R. Part 76
(Debarment Regulations),
(2) to exclude himself from serving in any advisory capacity to PHS,
including but not limited to service on any PHS advisory committee, board,
and/or peer review committee.
INQUIRIES
For further information contact:
Director
Division of Investigative Oversight
Office of Research Integrity
5515 Security Lane, Suite 700
Rockville, MD 20852
Telephone: 301- 443-5330
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