An interesting item showed up on theFederal Register this week. A former Wyeth scientist was alleged to have engaged in research misconduct in grant applications that were submitted to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
Boris Cheskis, a PhD and former senior scientist in discovery research at Wyeth's Women's Health unit and researched estrogen receptors, which has been an important field of study for the drugmaker. The federal notice states that his team identified an adapter protein, MNAR, that coordinates interactions between certain nuclear receptors that may play important roles in regulation of cell proliferation and survival. However, he falsified some figures, according to the Federal Register.
To speed the process, though, Cheskis neither admits nor denies that the findings by the NIH's Office of Research Integrity represent research misconduct, and the settlement isn't an admission of liability. And so he entered into a voluntary settlement agreement for two years, beginning March 22, in which he agreed...
1 - To exclude himself from serving in any advisory capacity to the US Public Health Service, including but not limited to service on any PHS advisory committee, board, and/or peer review committee, or as a consultant; 2 - That any institution that submits an application for PHS support for a research project on which his participation is proposed or that uses him in any capacity on PHS-supported research, or that submits a report of PHS-funded research in which he is involved, must concurrently submit a plan for supervision of his duties to the funding agency for approval; the supervisory plan must be designed to ensure the scientific integrity of his research contribution; he agreed that he will not participate in any PHS-supported research until such a supervisory plan is submitted to ORI.