[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 217 (Monday, November 10, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 63797-63799]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-28197]


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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:
    Craig H. Gelband, Ph.D., University of Florida: Based on the 
reports of two investigations conducted by the University of Florida 
(UF) (UF Reports) and additional analysis conducted by ORI in its 
oversight review, the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) found that Craig 
H. Gelband, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Physiology,

[[Page 63798]]

College of Medicine at UF, engaged in scientific misconduct in 
research. Publications and manuscripts containing the falsified data 
cited support from National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants, or 
falsified data was included in NIH grant applications, as follows:
    [sbull] R29 HL52189-01A2, then R01 HL52189-05, ``Regulation of 
renal vascular cells in hypertension''.
    [sbull] R01 HL56921, ``AT1 receptor control in chronic 
hypertension''.
    [sbull] F32 HD08496, ``Role of MNA V2.3 in uterine contraction''.
    [sbull] R01/R37 HL49254, ``Ionic & pharmacological regulation of 
vascular cells''.
    [sbull] F32 HL08531, ``Hormonal regulation of renal artery ionci 
currents''
    [sbull] P01 DK41315, ``Regulatory mechanism in colonic motility-
program project''.
    [sbull] R01 HL69034-01, ``Mechanisms of cerebral resistance artery 
constriction.''
    Specifically, PHS found that:
    I. Dr. Craig H. Gelband falsified data based on contractile tension 
recording in antisense experiments on the angiotensin enzyme (ACE), 
purportedly using renal arteriolar smooth muscle tension preparation:
    A. by falsely labeling the tension recordings in Figures 5, 6, and 
7 in a publication by Wang, H., Reaves, P.Y., Gardon, M.L., Keene, K., 
Goldberg, D.S., Gelband, C.H., Katovich, M.J. & Raizada, M.K. 
``Angiotensin I--converting enzyme antisense gene therapy causes 
permanent antihypertensive effects in the SHR.'' Hypertension 35[part 
2]: 2002-208, 2000 (subsequently referred to as the ``Hypertension 2000 
paper 1''), when he had earlier reported the same contractile 
records as being from experiments on the angiotensin receptor (not the 
enzyme), in Figures 6, 7, and 8 of an earlier mini-review by Martens, 
J.R. & Gelband, C.H. ``Ion channels in vascular smooth muscle: 
Alterations in essential hypertension.'' PSEBM 218:192-200, 1998 
(subsequently referred to as the PSEBM paper);
    B. by falsifying three of the four sets of the mean data that were 
in fact the same for both the F0 and F1 mean data in Figures 5 and 6 of 
the Hypertension 2000 paper 1. Dr. Gelband also dishonestly 
provided the institution with the falsified/fabricated tables of the 
mean data and the associated false standard error values as evidence 
that he had conducted the experiments for Figures 5 and 6; and
    C. by falsifying EC50 values in Table 1 in NIH grant 
application HL52189-05; the EC50 values had been 
interpolated from the falsified mean and SEM data shown in Figures 5 
and 6 in the Hypertension 2000 paper 1.
    II. Dr. Gelband falsified data in the reporting of research, 
misrepresenting current/voltage (I/V) data to be results from totally 
different experimental models or preparations in six publications 
(including one manuscript ``In-Press'') and in NIH grant application 
HL52189-05, specifically:
    A. as Figure 1A, in Gelband, C.H., Wang, H., Gardon, M.L., Keene, 
K., Goldberg, D.S., Reaves, P., Katovich, M.J., Raizada, M.K. 
``Angiotensin 1-converting enzyme antisense prevents altered renal 
vascular reactivity, but not high blood pressure, in spontaneously 
hypertensive rats.'' Hypertension 35 [part 2]:209-213, 2000 
(subsequently referred to as the ``Hypertension 2000 paper 
2'').
    B. as Figure 2, in Martens, J.R., Fergus, D.J., Tamkun, M.M., 
England, S.K., Gelband, C.H. ``Identification of voltage-gated 
K+ channel genes contributing to the decreased renal 
arteriolar K+ current in hypertension.'' J. Biol. Chem (MS 
M01389200), online, in press (subsequently referred to as the ``JBC 
paper''). J. Biol Chem Online (submitted and withdrawn).
    C. as Figure 4A, in Gelband, C.H. ``Protein kinase C regulation of 
renal vascular K[nu] and Ca++ channels in hypertension.'' 
Hypertension Online paper, withdrawn (subsequently referred to as the 
``Hypertension Online paper'').
    D. as Figure 3, in Gelband, C.H., Reaves, P.Y., Evans, J., Wang, 
H., Katovich, M.J., & Raizade, M.K. ``Angiotensin II Type 1 receptor 
antisense gene therapy prevents altered renal vascular calcium 
homeostasis in hypertension.'' Hypertension 33[part II]:360-365, 1999 
(subsequently referred to as the ``Hypertension 1999 paper'').
    E. as Figures 4A and 4B in Martens, J.R., Reaves, P.Y., Lu, D., 
Katovich, M.J., Berecek, K.H., Bishop, A.P., Raizade, M.K., & Gelband, 
C.H. ``Preventions of renovascular and cardiac pathophysiological 
changes in hypertension by angiotensin II type 1 receptor antisense 
gene therapy.'' Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 95:2664-2669, 1998 (subsequently 
referred to as the ``PNAS paper'').
    F. as Figure 5A, in Reaves, P.Y., Gelband, C.H., Wang, H., Yang, 
H., Lu, D., Berecek, K.H., Katovich, M.J., Raizada, M.K. ``Permanent 
cardiovascular protection from hypertension by the AT1 receptor 
antisense gene therapy in hypertensive rat offspring.'' Circ. Res. 
85:344-350, 1999 (subsequently referred to as the ``Circ. Res. 1999 
paper'').
    1. Dr. Gelband also falsified data in the proposing of research by 
submitting the above data as Figures 3, 14A, 14B, and 15 in NIH grant 
application HL52189-05.
    III. Dr. Gelband falsified traces of potassium currents in Figure 4 
of the J. Biol. Chem paper (see PHS Finding II) where they were claimed 
to have been recorded from smooth muscle cells from rats treated with 
antisense to potassium channels, and/or in Figure 3 of the Hypertension 
Online paper (see PHS Finding II) where they were claimed to have been 
records from rat renal cells treated with phorbol esters and PKC 
inhibitors. Furthermore, the potassium currents were recorded from 
neurons, not from smooth muscles as falsely reported in these 
publications.
    Dr. Gelband falsified data in the proposing of research by 
submitting the falsified traces of potassium currents as Figure 9 in 
NIH grant application HL52189-05.
    IV. Dr. Gelband falsified data by claiming in Figure 8 of NIH grant 
application HL52189-05 and in Figure 2 of the Hypertension Online paper 
(see PHS Finding II) to have generated in his laboratory Western blot 
data on protein kinase C isoenzymes in renal vascular smooth muscle 
cells, while in fact the data were actually from cultured neurons 
collected in another laboratory and published in Pan, S.J., Zhu, M., 
Raizada, M.K., Sumners, C., & Gelband, C.H. ``Angiotensin II-mediated 
inhibition of neuronal delayed rectifier K+ current: Role of 
protein kinase C-a.'' American Journal of Physiology 281:C17-C23, 2001 
(subsequently referred to as the AJP paper).
    V. Dr. Gelband falsified data by misrepresenting experimental 
traces he provided as the unnumbered topmost figure on Page 26 of NIH 
grant application HL69034-01, as being recordings showing effect of 
indolactam inhibition in posterior cerebral arteriolar smooth muscle 
cells, while the identical tracings had been published by Dr. Gelband 
as Figures 2C and 7D of the AJP paper (see PHS Issue 4), where they had 
been reported as being tracings from neuronal cells.
    VI. Dr. Gelband falsified data in the unnumbered rightmost figure 
on Page 25 of NIH grant application HL69034-01, by misrepresenting the 
data as showing potential changes induced in cerebral arterial myocytes 
by IP3 and heparin, while the same data were published by Dr. Gelband 
as Figure 5C in a 1997 publication: Gelband, C.H. & Gelband, H. 
``CA\2+\ release from intracellular stores is an initial step in 
hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction of rat pulmonary artery resistance 
vessels.''

[[Page 63799]]

Circulation 96:3647-3654, 1997 (subsequently referred to as the 
``Circulation paper'') as representing changes in intracellular calcium 
concentration of pulmonary artery cells induced by ryanodyne and 
hypoxia.
    VII. Dr. Gelband falsified electro-physiological records by reusing 
the same current-voltage trace as the resonse of renal vascular cells 
exposed for 2 seconds to Angiotensin II (Figure 4C) and to Caffeine 
(Figure 4B) on p. 124 of the publication Gelband, C.H. & Hume J.R. 
``[Ca\2+\]I Inhibition of K+ Channels in Canine 
Renal Artery. A Novel Mechanism for Agonist-Induced Membrane 
Depolarization.'' Circulation Research 77(1):121-130, 1995 
(subsequently referred to as the ``Circ. Res. 1995 paper'').
    Dr. Gelband also submitted the falsified data above in Figure 4 in 
NIH grant application R29 JL52189-01A2.
    VIII. Dr. Gelband fabricated laboratory research records for four 
Western blot experiments during the investigation, withholding from the 
institution his associate's notebook from which he had removed four 
labeled autoradiographic films from separate and different experiments, 
and using the removed films to fabricate a laboratory notebook 
containing falsified Western blots, which he provided to UF as evidence 
that he had conducted the experiments under investigation.
    The terms of this Agreement are as follows:
    (1) Respondent agreed to exclude himself voluntarily from any 
contracting or subcontracting with any agency of the United States 
Government and from eligibility or involvement in nonprocurement 
programs of the United States Government referred to as ``covered 
transactions'' as defined in the debarment regulations at 45 CFR part 
76, for a period of ten (10) years, beginning on October 3, 2003.
    (2) Respondent agreed to exclude himself 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 a period of ten (10) years, beginning on October 3, 
2003.
    (3) Within 30 days of the effective date of this Agreement, 
Respondent agreed to submit letters of retraction to the following 
journals concerning the specified data in the listed articles:
    A. Hypertension 2000 paper 1: Figures 5, 6, and 7 merited 
retraction. A retraction has been submitted relevant to this paper.
    B. Hypertension 2000 paper 1: Figure 1A merited 
retraction. A retraction has been submitted relevant to this paper.
    C. JBC paper: Figure 2 and Figure 4 merited retraction. It has 
already been withdrawn.
    D. Hypertension Online paper: Figure 4A and Figure 3 merited 
retraction. It has already been withdrawn.
    E. Hypertension 1999 paper: Figure 3 must be retracted.
    F. PNAS paper: Figure 4A and 4B must be retracted.
    G. Circ. Res. 1999 paper: Figure 5A must be retracted.
    H. Circ. Res. 1995 paper: Figure 4C or 4B must be retracted.

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. 03-28197 Filed 11-7-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4150-31-P