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Rutgers Professor Barred From Doing Research Amid Allegations Of Abusing Lab Mice At Former Job
From Siddhi Mahatole, UniversityHerald.com, September 25, 2024
A Rutgers University professor has been placed on leave and prohibited
from teaching or undertaking any research following accusations of animal
abuse from a previous employer.
Xiaobing Zhang, an associate professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
in Newark, has been on leave since Sept. 14, when the university received a
letter from an animal rights group.
The letter accuses Zhang of mistreating animals at his previous research lab
at Florida State University.
"He was involved in violations of federal regulations which were so severe
that he was barred from performing animal research for a year," the letter
said.
Zhang left the school before the penalty was carried out, "potentially to
carry on the bungled research project without undergoing penalties," it
added.
According to an anonymous complaint filed with the FSU Animal Care & Use
Committee on March 25, two FSU graduate students accused Zhang of abusing
laboratory mice during surgical studies.
The students said Zhang's lab gave mice only one of the four authorized
doses of pain treatment. They also added that the lab was modifying records
to mask the mistreatment, investigators said. Zhang was also accused of
failing to sedate mice before decapitating them
The committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment on
Wednesday.
After an investigation, FSU officials suspended part of the $413,000
research project and barred Zhang and two other staff from working in their
lab for a year, according to NJ.com.
Before being placed on paid administrative leave, Zhang had been employed at
Rutgers for less than two weeks. A Rutgers spokeswoman told the outlet that
Zhang started working at the university on Sept. 3 and had not worked on any
projects involving animals. However, the school declined to disclose Zhang's
vetting procedure before he was hired or whether they knew about the animal
abuse allegations.
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