[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 48 (Monday, March 14, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12490-12491]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-4957]


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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 Acting Assistant Secretary for Health have taken final 
action in the following case:
    Gary M. Kammer, M.D., Wake Forest University: Based on the Wake 
Forest University (WFU) Investigation Report, the respondent's 
admission, and additional analysis conducted by ORI in its oversight 
review, the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) found that Gary M. Kammer, 
M.D., former Professor, Division of Rheumatology, Department of 
Internal Medicine, and Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the 
WFU School of Medicine, engaged in scientific misconduct by 
falsification and fabrication of research in grant application 2 R01 
AR39501-12A1, ``T Lymphocyte Dysfunction in Lupus Erythematosus,'' 
submitted to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal 
Skin Diseases (NIAMS), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and in 1 
R01 AI46526-01A2, ``Protein Kinase A-II in the Pathogenesis of Lupus,'' 
submitted to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases 
(NIAID), NIH.
    Specifically, PHS found that:
     The respondent fabricated Families 2 and 3 in Figure 6 and 
related text in application 2 R01 AR39501-12A1 (pp. 29-30), entitled 
(``T Lymphocyte Dysfunction in Lupus Erythematosus'') by:
    a. Making up both of the pedigrees,
    b. Fabricating 13 PKA-I and 13 PKA-II values for these non-existent 
affected and unaffected family members, and
    c. Composing the false text describing these two fabricated 
families.

[[Page 12491]]

     The respondent falsified the text describing the results 
in Figure 20 (``Inhibition of c-fos luciferase activity in S49 T cells 
transiently transfected with pIRES2-RIIb-EGFP and treated with 8-Cl-
cAMP'') in application 1 R01 AI46526-01A2 (p. 27), by falsely reporting 
N = 4, P less than 0.002, when the experiment had been performed only 
one time at the time that the application was submitted.
    PHS also concluded that the respondent further demonstrated a lack 
of present responsibility as a Principal Investigator by submitting NIH 
grant proposals with additional unsupported experimental results:
     The pedigree and data for the family reported in grant 
application 2 R01 AR39501-12 and for Family 1 in grant application 2 
R01 AR39501-12A1 are incorrect and the data pertaining to this family 
that Dr. Kammer subsequently provided to WFU after the inquiry were not 
the data reported in the applications. Dr. Kammer stated that he did 
not recall who in his laboratory gave him this pedigree. ORI noted that 
the actual PKA data for the ``proof-of-principle'' family, while 
suggesting that low PKA values may be hereditary (the presence of low 
PKA-I values in three generations), do not support the claims of the 
fabricated and mixed up pedigree and data that show that low PKA-I 
values were associated with Systematic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) 
(application 2R01 AR39501-12).
     In application, R01 AI39501-12A1, the following 
unsupported statement was also included: ``In both normal and disease 
controls, all T cells express CD59+ and there is no significant 
difference in its cell surface expression on CD4+, CD45RA+, CD4+, 
CD45RO+, CD8+, CD45RA+, CD8+, CD45RO+ subsets (n=4 each control group; 
data not shown).'' No data could be produced to support the information 
in the grant application about these control experiments.
    Dr. Kammer has entered into a Voluntary Exclusion Agreement 
(Agreement ) in which he has voluntarily agreed for a period of three 
(3) years, beginning on February 15, 2005:
    (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, and
    (2) To exclude himself 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. This voluntary exclusion precludes the 
respondent from receiving Federal research, research training, or other 
research related funds from the Federal Government for three (3) years, 
but shall not apply to the respondent's participation in a Federal 
health care program as defined in section 1128B(f) of the Social 
Security Act and shall not apply to Federal funds used solely for 
purposes of teaching or training medical students, residents, or 
fellows in clinical medical matters.

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. 05-4957 Filed 3-11-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4150-31-P