FINDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC MISCONDUCT 

NIH GUIDE, Volume 24, Number 42, December 8, 1995

 

P.T. 34



Keywords:

  Ethics/Values in Science & Technol 

  Grants Administration/Policy+ 

 

Department of Health and Human Services

 

Notice is hereby given that the Office of Research Integrity (ORI)

has made final findings of scientific misconduct in the following

case:

 

Daniel P. Bednarik, Ph.D., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

(CDC):  Based on an investigation conducted by the Division of

Research Investigations, ORI found that Daniel P. Bednarik, Ph.D.,

engaged in scientific misconduct by fabricating and falsifying

research data in two scientific manuscripts that were submitted for

publication to the journal Nucleic Acids Research and to the journal

AIDS.  One paper, entitled "Expression of the human (cytosine-5)

methyltransferase is regulated by alternative mRNA splicing," was not

accepted and the other, entitled "Indirect evidence for an EBV-HIV

hybrid virus:  Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 and Epstein-Barr

virus genome association," was withdrawn before review.  Dr. Bednarik

is a former employee of CDC, and the research was done while he was

employed by CDC.

 

Dr. Bednarik and ORI have entered into a Voluntary Exclusion

Agreement, which the parties agreed shall not be construed as an

admission of liability or wrongdoing on the part of Dr. Bednarik.

Dr. Bednarik has agreed not to appeal ORI's jurisdiction or its

findings and has further has voluntarily agreed:

 

(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 and 48 C.F.R. Subparts 9.4 and 309.4 (Debarment

Regulations) for a period of two years, beginning on October 30,

1995;

 

(2) that any institution employing the Respondent be required to

submit, in conjunction with each application for PHS funds or report

of PHS funded research in which the Respondent is involved, a

certification that the data provided by the Respondent 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 for a period of one (1) year following his

exclusion;

 

(3) that any institution that submits an application for PHS support

for a research project that proposes the Respondent's participation

or that uses the Respondent in any capacity on PHS supported

research, must concurrently submit a plan for supervision of the

Respondent's duties, designed to ensure the scientific integrity of

Dr. Bednarik's research, for a period of one year following his

exclusion; and

 

(4) to exclude himself from serving in any advisory capacity to the

Public Health Service (PHS), including but not limited to service on

any PHS advisory committee, board, and/or peer review committee, or

as a consultant for a period of three years, beginning on October 30,

1995.

 

Tetsuya Matsuguchi, M.D., Ph.D., Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: On

November 3, 1995, ORI found that Tetsuya Matsuguchi, M.D., Ph.D.,

formerly a Harvard Medical School Research Fellow at the Dana-Farber

Cancer Institute, committed scientific misconduct by intentionally

falsifying data by artificially darkening one band each on two

autoradiographs in figures that he had prepared for a presentation at

an intramural research seminar and by altering three bands on the

print of an immunoblot included in Figure 2A of a paper published in

the EMBO Journal.  This research was supported by a Public Health

Service grant.

 

Dr. Matsuguchi has entered into a Voluntary Exclusion Agreement with

ORI in which he has accepted ORI's finding and has agreed to exclude

himself voluntarily, for the three year period beginning November 3,

1995:

 

(1) from any contracting or subcontracting with any agency of the

United States Government and from eligibility for, or involvement in,

Federal nonprocurement transactions (e.g., grants and cooperative

agreements), of the United States Government, as defined in 45 C.F.R.

Part 76 and 48 C.F.R. Subparts 9.4 and 309.4 (Debarment Regulations);

and

 

(2) 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.

 

The above voluntary exclusion, however, shall not apply to Dr.

Matsuguchi's future training or practice of clinical medicine whether

as a medical student, resident, fellow, or licensed practitioner

unless that practice involves research or research training.

 

Dr. Matsuguchi has agreed to submit a letter to the EMBO Journal

requesting correction of the article entitled "Tyrosine

phosphorylation of p85Vav in myeloid cells is regulated by GM-CSF,

IL-3, and Steel factor and is constitutively increased by p210

BCR/ABL" (EMBO Journal 14:257-265, 1995) by retracting Figure 2A,

because Dr. Matsuguchi enhanced the Vav bands in lanes 2, 3, and 4

without the knowledge of the other authors, and by substituting the

correct Figure 2A.

 

INQUIRIES

 

For further information contact:

 

Director, Division of Research Investigations

Office of Research Integrity

5515 Security Lane, Suite 700

Rockville, MD  20852

Telephone:  (301) 443-5330

 

.

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