An assistant professor of biomedical sciences at Iowa State University has resigned, after admitting to faking results on an AIDS research project funded by the federal government.
Dr. Dong-Pyou Han, was using human blood components and mixing it with rabbit blood. By using human blood that already had antibodies to HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) it appeared that the rabbit blood had developed the defenses against the virus — in turn creating positive results with the experimental vaccine.
These results were even published in scientific journals and presented at meetings for years; the former researcher was working on a team led by biomedical professor Michael Cho, but Han acted alone.
The remarkable “success” that the Iowa State University research program was getting from the vaccination results brought in at least $19 million in funding from the federal government, according to Dr. James Bradac, who oversees AIDS research for the National Institutes of Health.
“This went on for several years and it wasn’t detected until January 2013, ” said Bradac. Han resigned in October after admitting to faking parts of the research. Suspicions had arisen when other scientists at other labs could not duplicate the results. The Iowa State University team had been receiving grants for the research since 2008.
Han and Cho had worked together for about 15 years and transferred to Iowa State from Case Western University in 2009. A spokesman for Iowa State University, John McCarroll, said that Cho will not be facing disciplinary action.
Han agreed upon resignation not to seek any federal contracts for at least three years. There is no word on whether the university will have to pay back the grants.
S.C. Rhyne is a blogger and novelist in New York City. Follow the author on twitter @ReporterandGirl or facebook- TheReporterandTheGirl. www.SCRhyne.com
