Han ordered also to repay $7 million to NIH.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: A scientist who confessed to doctoring the results of an AIDS vaccine experiment and consequently garnered millions of dollars in federal funding as a result was sentenced on July 1 to four years and nine months in prison.
Dong-Pyou Han, a former researcher at Iowa State University, was also ordered to repay more than $7 million to the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Government prosecutors said Han’s misconduct dates to 2008 when he worked at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland under Professor Michael Cho, who was leading a team testing an experimental HIV vaccine on rabbits, hoping to increase their immune response against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Han said he initially accidentally mixed human blood with rabbit blood making the potential vaccine appear to increase antibodies to combat HIV.
Han continued to spike the results to avoid disappointing Cho, his mentor, after the scientific community became excited that the team could be on the verge of a vaccine, reported the Daily Mail.
It was only in January 2013 that Han’s charade came to light, when a group of Harvard University researchers deduced the promising results had been achieved with rabbit blood spiked with human antibodies.
Han’s case is unusual in that scientists who face research misconduct charges rarely go to prison, according to the Associated Press.
“It is important that we stand up not just for punishing the fraud committed against the United States government, but for the research that should be legitimately taking place on this devastating disease,” U.S. Attorney Nicholas A. Klinefeldt said in a statement.
Cho’s team continues to work on the vaccine at ISU and has subsequently obtained funding, reported the Daily Mail.