Dental researcher guilty of research misconduct

A former researcher at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine engaged in "research misconduct" that included falsifying data, according to the U.S. Office of Research Integrity (Federal Register, December 28, 2012, Vol. 77:249, pp. 76491-76492).

Martin Biosse-Duplan, DDS, PhD, who was conducting bone density studies in the department of oral medicine, infection, and immunity, switched numbers to show differences in bone density between genetically modified mice and a comparison group to "falsely demonstrate a difference in bone density when there was none," according to a notice in the Federal Register.

The data were presented at a lab meeting, and false text was included in two submitted meeting abstracts published in the journal Bone (May 7, 2011, Vol. 48:suppl 2, p. S97) and the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research (June 16, 2011, Vol. 25:suppl 1, p. S215).

However, as a result of an investigation by Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Dental Medicine, the data were not presented at any professional meetings and the experiments reported in the abstracts are being redone.

Over the next two years, if Dr. Biosse-Duplan applies for and receives federal funding for biomedical research, he will have to have his research supervised. He is not permitted to participate in federally sponsored health research without a supervision plan approved by the Office of Research Integrity. He has also agreed to exclude himself from serving as a peer reviewer.