[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 132 (Tuesday, July 11, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Page 35749]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-16961]



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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Office of the Secretary


Findings of Scientific Misconduct

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, HHS.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that the Office of Research Integrity 
has made final findings of scientific misconduct in the following case:
    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.
    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.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Director, Division of Research 
Investigations, Office of Research Integrity, 301-443-5330.
Chris B. Pascal,
Acting Director, Office of Research Integrity.
[FR Doc. 95-16961 Filed 7-10-95; 8:45 am]
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