Plagiarism and Fabrication in Public Health Research at Harvard

What is this about?

The US Public Health Service found that a researcher at the Harvard School for Public Health engaged in scientific misconduct in research funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Why is this important?

The researcher plagiarised text, plagiarised three figures showing results of an immunofluorescence assay, a phosphorimage, and northern blot analysis and falsified the data as results of experiments on Plasmodium bergheii, instead of P. falciparum as reported in a subproject of the PHS grant application. In addition, the researcher fabricated portions of an e-mail from his postdoctoral student that he presented to the HSPH inquiry committee purportedly to falsely implicate the student in the submission of the plagiarised materials for the grant application.