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UMich researcher resigns after allegations of data falsification

 

UMich researcher resigns after allegations of data falsification

From Rory Murphy, LocalToday.news, February 8, 2023

Dr. Chung Owyang, a former chief of gastroenterology at the University of Michigan, resigned his position Jan. 2 amid alleged falsified data related to millions of federal research dollars. The university considered Owyang’s experiments fraudulent and on January 24 requested the withdrawal of five scientific articles.

One of the withdrawn articles appeared in the Journal of Neurophysiology in 2003, while the four other withdrawn articles were originally published in the American Journal of Physiology in 2005, 2008, 2011, and 2012.

University spokesman Kim Broekhuizen wrote in an email to The Michigan Daily that the Office of the Vice President for Research monitors and improves UM’s policies and training requirements to address issues related to research misconduct.

“(The University) is committed to promoting and maintaining the highest ethical standards in conducting research and scholarship,” said Broekhuizen.

Owyang’s research involved studying the brain and hormonal responses to various stimulants by testing rats. Stop Animal Exploitation Now!, a national monitoring group aiming to eradicate animal testing, filed two complaints with the Federal Agency for Research Integrity regarding Owyang’s research, the first on December 12, 2022 and the second on January 20, 2023. The group expressed concerns that the animals are used unethically in an experimental setting as the use of rats contributes to skewed data.

SAEN co-founder Michael Budkie said he worked with various news sources in the state, including The Detroit Metro Times, and wrote a letter to the university’s president, Santa Ono, to raise awareness of the allegations of research fraud. Budkie told The Daily he thinks the university needs to take further action against animal testing in its labs, particularly by returning the millions of dollars the federal government has given the lab for its research.

“The University of Michigan should return the grant money associated with this research fraud case to the National Institutes of Health because the federal government did not get what it paid for,” Budkie said.

Researchers use information and results from previous studies to support hypotheses and generate questions for further analysis. Budkie said one of the main implications of data fabrication in research is that it could lead to more fraud in the future.

“One of the other things that’s bad about fake experiments like this, especially if they go undetected for several years, is that they spawn other experiments that are then based on… fake data,” Budkie said. “It has a cascading effect and creates a spreading wave of fraud.”
In an interview with The Daily, LSA student Paul Lais described Owyang’s situation as unfortunate and counterproductive. Lais works as a lab assistant researching osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease that wears away cartilage. As an undergraduate student, Lais believes integrity in research is important because it protects data from misleading future researchers.

“I believe the main point of research is to explore the topic you’re researching, whether you’re right or wrong,” Lais said. “Faking that or fabricating data… kind of takes away the point of research to find the truth.”

Lais emphasized the importance of valuing the lives of laboratory animals.

“It’s kind of inhumane… to waste[the animals],” Lais said. “It is an abuse of their sacrifice for science. I have a feeling this is just not okay.”

Budkie raised similar complaints, saying Owyang’s wrongdoing should be more than just research fraud.

“There’s something worse about research misconduct when it involves the cost of animal life,” Budkie said.

According to Broekhuizen, the university is working to prevent fraudulent research from being repeated and outlines Ono’s future plans for cultivating and promoting integrity in university research.

“President Santa J. Ono recently announced that (the University) will establish an independent central Ethics, Integrity, and Compliance Office to investigate trends, processes, problem areas, and general Ethics, Integrity, and Compliance issues. questions,” wrote Broekhuizen.

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