NOT-OD-04-004: FINDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC MISCONDUCT

Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS)
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FINDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC MISCONDUCT

RELEASE DATE:  October 30, 2003

NOTICE: NOT-OD-04-004

Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)

Notice is hereby given that the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) and the 
Assistant Secretary for Health have taken final action in the following case:

Ilya Koltover, Ph.D., California Institute of Technology:  Based on the 
report of an investigation conducted by the California Institute of 
Technology (CIT) (CIT Report), an admission by the respondent, and additional 
analysis conducted by ORI in its oversight review, the U.S. Public Health 
Service (PHS) found that Ilya Koltover, Ph.D., former postdoctoral fellow at 
CIT, engaged in scientific misconduct in research supported by PHS 
Postdoctoral Fellowship F32 GM20588 entitled  Design of targeted synthetic 
gene delivery vehicles. 

Specifically, PHS found that Dr. Koltover plagiarized a scanning micrograph 
(STM) from a graduate student, falsified it as an atomic force micrograph 
(AFM) of a separate molecule, and falsely represented it (1) to his research 
group at Caltech; (2) in his grant application to the Petroleum Research Fund 
(PRF); and (3) to his mentor, who then included it as an AFM figure in a 
proposal to the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Dr. Koltover has entered into a Voluntary Exclusion Agreement in which 
he has voluntarily agreed for a period of three (3) years, beginning on 
October 3, 2003:

(1)  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, or as a consultant;

(2)  that any institution which submits an application for PHS support 
for a research project on which Dr. Koltover’s participation is 
proposed or which uses him in any capacity on PHS supported research, 
or that submits a report of PHS-funded research in which he is 
involved, must concurrently submit a plan for supervision of his duties 
to the funding agency for approval.  The supervisory plan must be 
designed to ensure the scientific integrity of his research 
contribution.  Dr. Koltover agreed to ensure that a copy of the 
supervisory plan is also submitted to ORI by the institution and that 
he will not participate in any PHS-supported research until such a 
supervision plan is submitted to ORI; and

(3)  that any institution employing Dr. Koltover submits, in 
conjunction with each application for PHS funds or report, manuscript, 
or abstract of PHS funded research in which he is involved, a 
certification that the data provided by Dr. Koltover are based on 
actual experiments or are otherwise legitimately derived, and that the 
data, procedures, and methodology are accurately reported in the 
application or report.  Dr. Koltover must ensure that the institution 
sends a copy of the certification to ORI.

INQUIRIES

For further information contact:

Director
Division of Investigative Oversight
Office of Research Integrity
1101 Wootton Parkway, Suite 750
Rockville, MD  20852
Telephone:  301- 443-5330
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