Findings of scientific misconduct.

FINDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC MISCONDUCT

NIH GUIDE, Volume 24, Number 27, July 28, 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

cases:



James Urban, M.D., Ph.D., California Institute of Technology:  The

Office of Research Integrity (ORI) has found that James L. Urban,

M.D., Ph.D., engaged in scientific misconduct.  This finding is based

on an investigation by the California Institute of Technology (CIT)

which concluded that Dr. Urban committed serious errors in judgment

and serious scientific misconduct in connection with fabricating

certain research data in two scientific papers that were published in

the journal Cell. The first paper is J. Urban, V. Kumar, D. Kono, C.

Gomez, S. Horvath, J. Clayton, D. Ando, E. Sercarz, and L. Hood,

"Restricted Use of T Cell Receptor V Genes on Murine Autoimmune

Encephalomyelitis Raises Possibilities for Antibody Therapy," Cell

54: 577-592 (1988).  The second paper at issue is J. L. Urban, S. J.

Horvath and L. Hood, "Autoimmune T Cells: Immune Recognition of

Normal and Variant Peptide Epitopes and Peptide-based Therapy," Cell

59: 257-271 (1989).  Specifically, the CIT Report states that Dr.

Urban admitted that he fabricated two control lanes reported in

Figure 5 of the Cell 54 paper.  With respect to the Cell 59 paper,

the CIT Report states that Dr. Urban admitted that he circulated

draft copies of the manuscript that contained fabricated data in

order to circumvent both the internal and external review processes.



Dr. Urban has accepted the ORI findings and agreed to exclude himself

voluntarily, for a period of three years beginning June 2, 1995, 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 CFR Part 76 and 48

CFR Subparts 9.4 and 309.4 (Debarment Regulations).  This voluntary

exclusion does not apply to Dr. Urban's current or future practice of

clinical medicine or training, whether as a resident, fellow, or

licensed practitioner, unless that practice involves the proposing,

conducting, or reporting of biomedical or behavioral research or

research training.  Dr. Urban also agreed to exclude himself

voluntarily from serving on any Public Health Service Advisory

Committees, Boards, and/or peer review committees for the same three-

year period.



The ORI acknowledges that Dr. Urban cooperated with the CIT

Investigation Committee during its investigation of allegations of

scientific misconduct and with ORI in its resolution of this matter.



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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