Duke University settles research misconduct lawsuit for $112.5 million

[Eugene]

Source: Science Magazine

Duke University settles research misconduct lawsuit for $112.5 million

By Science News StaffMar. 25, 2019 , 1:50 PM

Duke University will pay $112.5 million to the U.S. government to settle a lawsuit brought by a former employee who alleged that the university included falsified data in applications and reports for federal grants worth nearly $200 million. The university will also take several steps “to improve the quality and integrity of research conducted on campus,” including the creation of a new advisory panel that will provide recommendations to the president, the Durham, North Carolina, institution said in a statement released today.

Late last year, ScienceInsider reported that Duke and federal prosecutors had moved to settle the case, but no details were available. It had drawn close attention from other universities, in large part because it involved a federal whistleblower law, the False Claims Act, that has rarely been used to address scientific misconduct. Under the law, Duke biologist Joseph Thomas, who filed the lawsuit in 2014, could receive as much as 30% of any settlement reached between the United States and the university.

Thomas alleged that Duke biologist Erin Potts-Kant—a co-author on numerous papers that are now retracted—included fraudulent data in 60 grant reports and funding applications to U.S. agencies. “Duke discovered the possible research misconduct in 2013 after (Potts-Kant) was fired for embezzling money from the university, which also occurred over the same period,” the university noted in a statement released today. Potts-Kants “eventually pled guilty to two counts of forgery and paid restitution to Duke.”

“This settlement, which results primarily from willful misconduct that took place in one laboratory, but which affected the work of many more researchers, should not diminish the life-changing and life-saving work that takes place at every day at Duke,” said Duke University President Vincent Price in the statement. “Our difficulties in ferreting out and ending such misconduct remind us that important work remains to be done.”

Duke’s new Advisory Panel on Research Integrity and Excellence, to be chaired by pediatric microbiologist and former research dean of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, Ann Arvin, will examine ways of “improving the structure and function of research administration, with a focus on promoting research integrity,” the statement says. It is expected to provide its recommendations to Price by 30 June.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/03/duke-university-settles-research-misconduct-lawsuit-1125-million

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. Here's a whole bunch of background material:

University close to settling research fraud lawsuit
By Bre Bradham | 11/26/2018
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The lawsuit stems from fraud allegedly committed by former Duke researcher Erin Potts-Kant, who worked in the Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care department of Duke Health. Potts-Kant has had more than a dozen papers retracted since news broke of the allegedly faked data. She was arrested in 2013 for embezzling money from Duke.

Potts-Kant admitted to altering some of the data, but maintained that the experiments were actually run. According to Duke's filings, Potts-Kant told the Ad Hoc Investigation Committee, which investigated her research following her arrest, that she had “fabricated and/or falsified [data] that were included in various publications and grant applications..."

The case was filed by Joseph Thomas—another former Duke employee—under the False Claims Act, which allows a "whistleblower" to bring a case when the federal government is allegedly being defrauded. Under the law, Duke could be forced to pay as much as $600 million.

In his suit, Thomas alleges that Potts-Kant manipulated data that she collected when studying the lung function of mice. Based on that data and pursuant research articles, she was then able to secure additional research funding from the federal government, according to the suit. These allegations bring more than 60 federal grants—totaling approximately $200 million from agencies like the National Institutes of Health and Environmental Protection Agency—into question.
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