[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 135 (Monday, July 16, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 38836-38837]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-13703]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Office of the Secretary


Findings of Misconduct in Science

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:
    Kristin Roovers, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania: Based on an 
investigation conducted by the University of Pennsylvania (UP) and 
additional analysis and information obtained by the Office of Research 
Integrity during its oversight review, the U.S. Public Health Service 
(PHS) found that Kristin Roovers, Ph.D., former postdoctoral fellow, 
Departments of Medicine, Cell and Developmental Biology, and 
Pharmacology, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and former graduate 
student, Department of Pharmacology, UP, engaged in misconduct in 
science in research funded by National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute 
(NHLBI), National Institutes of Health (NIH), grants R01 HL061567, P50 
HL057278, and T32 HL07873, National Institutes of Diabetes and 
Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), NIH, grants P30 DK52574 and R01 
DK066886, National Cancer Institute (NCI), NIH, grant R01 CA72639, and 
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), NIH, grants R01 
GM48224, R01 GM58224, R01 GM51878, and R01 GM69064.
    Dr. Roovers' manipulations and falsification of data were 
extensive, encompassing 19 panels of Western blot data, appearing in 11 
figures in 3 publications from her research as a graduate student and 
her first postdoctoral position and in 9 panels of immunoblot data in 8 
figures of an unpublished manuscript.
    Specifically, the findings involved falsification by duplication 
and reuse of immunoblot data to misrepresent the results as data from 
different experiments that had been reported in the following 
manuscript and three publications:
     Figures 2C, 3C, 4D, 4E, 6C, 7B, and supplement Figures 1, 
2B, and 3B in a

[[Page 38837]]

manuscript submitted to the Journal of Clinical Investigation entitled: 
``Akt1 promotes physiologic, but antagonizes pathologic, cardiac 
growth.''
     Figures 3A, 3C, and 4A in: Welsh, C.F., Roovers, K., 
Villanueva, J., Liu, Y., Schwartz, M.A., & Assoian, R.K. ``Timing of 
cyclin D1 expression within G1 phase is controlled by Rho.'' Nature 
Cell Biology 3(11):950-957, 2001.
     Figures 1, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3C, 4A, 4B, 6C, 6D, and 6E in: 
Roovers, K., & Assoian, R.K. ``Effects of rho kinase and actin stress 
fibers on sustained extracellular signal-regulated kinase activity and 
activation of G(1) phase cyclin-dependent kinases.'' Mol. Cell Biol. 
23(12):4283-4294, 2003. Retracted in Mol. Cell Biol. 26(13):5203, July 
2006.
     Figures 1C, 2C, 5B, 5D, 6B and 6D in: Roovers, K., Klein, 
E.A., Castagnino, P., & Assoian, R.K. ``Nuclear translocation of LIM 
kinase mediates Rho-Rho kinase regulation of cyclin D1 expression.'' 
Developmental Cell 5 (2):273-284, 2003. Retracted in Developmental Cell 
10(5):681, May 2006.
    Corrections were recommended by UP for the Nature Cell Biology 
paper.
    Dr. Roovers' falsified Western blot data from the publications in 
Nature Cell Biology and from Developmental Cell were included in NIH 
grant applications CA 72639-07 and GM 69064-01.
    ORI has implemented the following administrative actions for a 
period of five (5) years, beginning on June 7, 2007:
    (1) Dr. Roovers is debarred from eligibility for 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 
HHS' implementation of OMB Guidelines to Agencies on Governmentwide 
Debarment and Suspension at 2 CFR part 376, et seq.; and
    (2) Dr. Roovers is prohibited 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 FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Director, Division of Investigative 
Oversight, Office of Research Integrity, 1101 Wootton Parkway, Suite 
750, Rockville, MD 20852, (240) 453-8800.

Chris B. Pascal,
Director, Office of Research Integrity.
 [FR Doc. E7-13703 Filed 7-13-07; 8:45 am]
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