IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Responding to a major case of
research misconduct, federal prosecutors have taken the rare step of
filing charges against a scientist after he admitted falsifying data
that led to millions in grants and hopes of a breakthrough in AIDS
vaccine research.
Investigators say former Iowa State University
laboratory manager Dong-Pyou Han has confessed to spiking samples of
rabbit blood with human antibodies to make an experimental HIV vaccine
appear to have great promise. After years of work and millions in
National Institutes of Health grants, another laboratory uncovered
irregularities that suggested the results — once hailed as
groundbreaking — were bogus.
Han was indicted last week on four
counts of making false statements, each of which carries up to five
years in prison. He was set to be arraigned Tuesday in Des Moines, but
he didn’t show up due to an apparent paperwork mix-up. A prosecutor said
Han will be given another chance to appear next week.
Han, 57,
didn’t return a message left at his home in Cleveland, where he’s been
living since resigning from the university last fall. A native of South
Korea, he surrendered his passport following his arrest and initial
court appearance in Ohio last week.
Experts said the fraud was
extraordinary and that charges are rarely brought in such cases. The
National Institutes of Health said it’s reviewing what impact the case
has had on the research it funds.
"It’s an important case because
it is extremely rare for scientists found to have committed fraud to be
held accountable by the actual criminal justice system," said Ivan
Oransky, co-founder of Retraction Watch, which tracks research
misconduct.
Oransky, a journalist who also has a medical degree,
said there have been only a handful of similar prosecutions in the last
30 years.
He said Han’s case was "particularly brazen" and noted
that charges are rarely brought because the U.S. Office of Research
Integrity, which investigates misconduct, doesn’t have prosecution
authority, and most cases involve smaller amounts of money.
"It’s a
pretty extraordinary case involving clear, intentional falsification,"
added Mike Carome, a consumer advocate and director of Public Citizen’s
Health Research Group. "The wool was pulled over many people’s eyes."
Carome
noted that Han’s misconduct wasted tax dollars and caused researchers
to chase a false lead. He said such cases also undermine the public’s
trust in researchers.
Finding an HIV vaccine remains a top
international scientific priority. A 2009 study in Thailand is the only
one ever to show a modest success, protecting about a third of
recipients against infection. That’s not good enough for general use, so
researchers continue exploring numerous approaches.
According to
the indictment, Han’s misconduct caused colleagues to make false
statements in a federal grant application and progress reports to NIH.
The
NIH paid out $5 million under that grant as of earlier this month. Iowa
State has agreed to pay back NIH nearly $500,000 for the cost of Han’s
salary.
Han’s misconduct dates to when he worked at Case Western
Reserve University in Cleveland under Michael Cho, who was leading a
team testing an experimental HIV vaccine on rabbits.
Starting in
2008, Cho’s team received initial NIH funding for the work. Cho reported
soon that his vaccine was causing rabbits to develop antibodies to HIV,
which left NIH officials "flabbergasted," according to a criminal
complaint against Han.
Cho’s team sent blood samples in 2009 to
Duke University researchers, who verified the apparent positive impact
on the vaccinated rabbits. The confirmation was seen as "a major
breakthrough in HIV/AIDS vaccine research," according to the complaint.
Iowa
State recruited Cho in 2009, and with his team — including Han — he
soon received a five-year NIH grant to continue the research. The team
kept reporting progress. But in January 2013, a team at Harvard
University found the promising results had been achieved with rabbit
blood spiked with human antibodies.
An investigation by Iowa State
pinpointed Han, after he was caught sending more spiked samples to Duke
University. In a Sept. 30, 2013 confession letter, Han said he started
the fraud in 2009 "because he wanted (results) to look better" and that
he acted alone.
"I was foolish, coward, and not frank," he wrote.
Cho
has said he was devastated and angered that he wasted years on the
research, but he has vowed to continue his work. He has not been accused
of any wrongdoing.
Stephen Brown, medical director for the AIDS
Research Alliance, said the case highlights the fierce competition to
win increasingly scarce NIH research funding.
"Han’s case also
indicates the need for greater transparency and oversight of the peer
review funding process, which is cloaked in secrecy and often leads to
large sums being given to favored organizations, despite a lack of
output," Brown said in a statement.