[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 103 (Thursday, May 29, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 30846-30847]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-12442]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Office of the Secretary


Findings of Research Misconduct

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, HHS.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that the Office of Research Integrity 
(ORI) has taken final action in the following case:
    Helen Freeman, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel 
Deaconess Medical Center: Based on an investigation conducted by 
Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center 
(BIDMS) and additional analysis conducted by ORI in its oversight 
review, ORI found that Dr. Helen Freeman, former HMS Postdoctoral 
Fellow at BIDMS, engaged in research misconduct in research supported 
by National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases 
(NIDDK), National Institutes of Health (NIH), grant R37 DK053477.
    ORI found that the Respondent engaged in research misconduct by 
knowingly and intentionally falsifying three (3) figures and/or legends 
and one (1) supplemental movie legend in a manuscript submitted for 
publication to the journal Nature (Freeman, H.C., Kong, D., Sidman, 
R.L., & Lowell, B. ``Inhibition of UCP2 Prevents Neurodegenerative 
Diseases in Mice.'').
    Specifically, ORI found that Respondent:
     Falsified Figure 6 and its legend in a manuscript 
submitted to Nature by claiming that the experiment represented 
histological and rotarod results from 5 week old pcd3J-/- 
mice treated with saline or pcd3J-/- mice treated with 
genipin when the genotype, treatment conditions, numbers of mice used, 
and mice age were not as claimed; these falsified data also were 
presented to a colleague for use in related experiments

[[Page 30847]]

     falsified Figure 4, Supplementary Figure 3, and 
Supplementary Movie 1 and/or its legends in a manuscript submitted to 
Nature by claiming that the knockout of UCP2 rescues the ataxic 
phenotype of pcd3J-/- mice when she knew this to be false.
    
    Dr. Freeman has voluntarily agreed for a period of three (3) years, 
beginning on May 6, 2014:
    (1) To have her research supervised if employed by an institution 
that receives or applies for U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) funding; 
Respondent agreed that prior to the submission of an application for 
PHS support for a research project on which the Respondent's 
participation is proposed and prior to Respondent's participation in 
any capacity on PHS-supported research, Respondent shall ensure that a 
plan for supervision of Respondent's duties is submitted to ORI for 
approval; the supervision plan must be designed to ensure the 
scientific integrity of Respondent's research contribution; Respondent 
agreed that she shall not participate in any PHS-supported research 
until such a supervision plan is submitted to and approved by ORI; 
Respondent agreed to maintain responsibility for compliance with the 
agreed-upon supervision plan;
    (2) that any institution employing her shall submit, in conjunction 
with each application for PHS funds, or report, manuscript, or abstract 
involving PHS-supported research in which Respondent is involved, a 
certification to ORI that the data provided by Respondent are based on 
actual experiments or are otherwise legitimately derived and that the 
data, procedures, and methodology are accurately reported in the 
application, report, manuscript, or abstract; and
    (3) to exclude herself voluntarily 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.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Acting Director, Office of Research 
Integrity, 1101 Wootton Parkway, Suite 750, Rockville, MD 20852, (240) 
453-8800.

Donald Wright,
Acting Director, Office of Research Integrity.
[FR Doc. 2014-12442 Filed 5-28-14; 8:45 am]
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