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Fraudulent animal experiments at U-M prompts call for criminal probe
From Steve Neavling, Metrotimes.com, January 30, 2023
An internal university investigation found falsified or fabricated data
in research journals.
A national watchdog group is now calling for a criminal investigation of the
University of Michigan and its researchers who were caught falsifying or
fabricating data following experiments on rats.
The request for an investigation comes after Stop Animal Exploitation Now!
(SAEN) discovered a fifth research publication was retracted from a health
journal because of suspected fraud.
Four other publications were retracted after an internal university
investigation found misconduct among researchers.
In a letter sent Monday to the Office of Inspector General of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), SAEN says the fraudulent
research involved more than $5 million in grants.
SAEN is requesting an investigation of the researchers and the university
for failing to ensure the research was conducted legally.
“Since these clear incidents of fraud and false statements were allowed to
continue over the course of nine years, it is clear that the research
administration of the University of Michigan failed to fulfill their
responsibilities to insure that research funded through their institution,
and for which the university receives indirect costs funding, must be
legally and accurately performed,” SAEN Executive Director Michael A. Budkie
wrote.
The University of Michigan said one of the primary researchers, Dr. Chung
Owyang, a gastroenterology researcher in Michigan Medicine, stopped working
at the university on Jan. 3, U-M spokeswoman Kim Broekhuizen told Metro
Times last week.
The details of his departure remain murky.
Owyang’s research into brains and hormonal reactions resulted in five
publications that were later retracted after the University of Michigan
determined the work relied on falsified or fabricated data.
Last week, SAEN also called for an investigation by the HHS’ Office of
Research Integrity.
A University of Michigan research misconduct investigation committee “found
that there was falsification and/or fabrication” of various data published
in the American Physiological Society and Journal of Neurophysiology, both
of which retracted the publications.
“Both those who actually falsified UM research and the UM research
administration must be held accountable,” Budkie said in a statement Monday.
“All funding connected to these cases of fraud must be returned to the NIH.”
Metro Times could not reach the University of Michigan for comment on the
call for a criminal investigation.
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