[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 210 (Thursday, October 30, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Page 61811]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-27295]


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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 
(ORI) and the Assistant Secretary for Health have taken final action in 
the following case:
    Ilya Koltover, Ph.D., California Institute of Technology: Based on 
the report of an investigation conducted by the California Institute of 
Technology (CIT) (CIT Report), an admission by the respondent, and 
additional analysis conducted by ORI in its oversight review, the U.S. 
Public Health Service (PHS) found that Ilya Koltover, Ph.D., former 
postdoctoral fellow at CIT, engaged in scientific misconduct in 
research supported by PHS Postdoctoral Fellowship F32 GM20588 entitled 
``Design of targeted synthetic gene delivery vehicles.''
    Specifically, PHS found that Dr. Koltover plagiarized a scanning 
micrograph (STM) from a graduate student, falsified it as an atomic 
force micrograph (AFM) of a separate molecule, and falsely represented 
it (1) to his research group at Caltech; (2) in his grant application 
to the Petroleum Research Fund (PRF); and (3) to his mentor, who then 
included it as an AFM figure in a proposal to the National Science 
Foundation (NSF).
    Dr. Koltover has entered into a Voluntary Exclusion Agreement in 
which he has voluntarily agreed for a period of three (3) years, 
beginning on October 3, 2003:
    (1) To exclude himself 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;
    (2) That any institution which submits an application for PHS 
support for a research project on which Dr. Koltover's participation is 
proposed or which 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. Dr. Koltover agreed to ensure that a copy of the 
supervisory plan is also submitted to ORI by the institution and that 
he will not participate in any PHS-supported research until such a 
supervision plan is submitted to ORI; and
    (3) That any institution employing Dr. Koltover submit, in 
conjunction with each application for PHS funds or report, manuscript, 
or abstract of PHS funded research in which he is involved, a 
certification that the data provided by Dr. Koltover are based on 
actual experiments or are otherwise legitimately derived, and that the 
data, procedures, and methodology are accurately reported in the 
application or report. Dr. Koltover must ensure that the institution 
sends a copy of the certification to ORI.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Director, Division of Investigative 
Oversight, Office of Research Integrity, 1101 Wootton Parkway, Suite 
750, Rockville, MD 20852, (301) 443-5330.

Chris B. Pascal,
Director, Office of Research Integrity.
[FR Doc. 03-27295 Filed 10-29-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4150-31-P