January 12, 2022
Maryland man receives first successful pig-to-human heart transplant
A Maryland man became the first person to receive a successful pig-to-human heart transplant. David Bennett, 57, is “still doing well” three days after the first-of-its-kind surgery, and will continue to be monitored to determine whether the transplant, conducted at the University of Maryland, provides lifesaving benefits, the university said in a statement. “This was a…
January 8, 2022
Harvard University Professor Convicted of Making False Statements and Tax Offenses
Dr. Charles Lieber found guilty of concealing his affiliation with the Wuhan University of Technology and his participation in China’s Thousand Talents Program BOSTON – The former Chair of Harvard University’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department was convicted by a federal jury today in connection with lying to federal authorities about his affiliation with People’s…
June 23, 2021
Lack of Biobank Authorization Leads to Retraction of W. Virginia Paper
“A friendly word of caution to the research community—with the rise of biobanks/large datasets in the 21st century, researchers should pay particular attention to data rights restrictions and carefully vet the use of any data source before using it for scientific purposes.” Those words of advice came from a research team at the University of…
May 18, 2021
University Researcher Sentenced to Prison for Lying on Grant Applications to Develop Scientific Expertise for China
An Ohio man and rheumatology professor and researcher with strong ties to China was sentenced to 37 months in prison for making false statements to federal authorities as part of an immunology research fraud scheme. As part of his sentence, Zheng was also ordered to pay more than $3.4 million in restitution to the National…
Study coordinator charged in scheme to falsify clinical trial data
“According to court documents, Jessica Palacio, 34, of Miami, worked as a study coordinator at a clinical trial firm in Miami called Unlimited Medical Research….The indictment alleges that Palacio participated in a scheme to falsify medical records to make it appear as though pediatric subjects made scheduled visits to Unlimited Medical Research, received physical exams…
May 7, 2021
FDA Threatens First Firm With Fines for Reporting Failure
After issuing a warning letter nearly a year ago for failure to post required summary trial results on ClinicalTrials.gov, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Acceleron Pharma Inc. a month to submit data from a Phase 2 trial of medications for the treatment of advanced renal cancer or it will face…
February 12, 2021
Severe Sanctions Accompany ORI’s First Misconduct Finding of 2021
A former post-doctoral fellow at the McGovern Medical School, part of the University of Texas (UT) Health Science Center, admitted to committing research misconduct by “knowingly and intentionally falsifying, fabricating, and plagiarizing data and text” in six papers and eight manuscripts, according to the HHS Office of Research Integrity (ORI). In its Feb. 4 Federal…
Former UF Researcher Indicted for NIH Fraud ‘Scheme’
Lin Yang, a former University of Florida (UF) researcher, has been indicted on six counts of wire fraud and four counts of making false statements, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Feb. 3. A grand jury returned the indictment on Dec. 15 related to an award of $1.75 million for which Yang was the principal…
November 9, 2020
Florida Resident Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Falsify Clinical Trial Data
A Miami resident is facing up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to fabricating results for a GlaxoSmithKline-funded study of asthma medication for pediatric patients. Lisett Raventos, 46, of Miami, Florida, pleaded guilty today in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida today to one count of conspiracy to commit…
July 15, 2020
Researcher Charged with Illegally Using U.S. Grant Funds to Develop Scientific Expertise for China
A rheumatology professor and researcher with strong ties to China has been ordered held without bond to face a charge of grant fraud for not disclosing that he was engaged in a sophisticated scheme to use approximately $4.1 million in grants from the NIH to develop China’s expertise in the areas of rheumatology and Immunology.