Duke University is investigating potential misconduct in a trio of studies of ways to identify brain damage in soldiers.
The studies were conducted by Mohamed B Abou-Donia and Brahmajothi Mulugu, and appeared in the February 2020 issue of Military Medicine, which has issued an expression of concern about the articles. The research was performed using funding from the U.S. Department of Defense; two of the studies were presented as posters at the 2018 Military Health System Research Symposium.
Dr. Mulugu is listed as a research scientist in the Department of Pediatrics at Duke. Abou-Donia, who has been at the institution for nearly 50 years, is a professor of pharmacology, cancer biology and neurobiology.
The three papers are:
- “Novel Approach for Detecting the Neurological or Behavioral Impact of Physiological Episodes (PEs) in Military Aircraft Crews” (cited once, according to Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science);
- “Monitoring From Battlefield to Bedside: Serum Repositories Help Identify Biomarkers, Perspectives on Mild Traumatic Brain Injury” (no citations); and
- “PTSD Susceptibility and Challenges: Pathophysiological Consequences of Behavioral Symptoms” (four citations).
According to the expression of concern:
The authors’ institution has notified the journal of an institutional investigation regarding the data underlying this article. While the journal awaits supporting documentation, we alert readers that these concerns have been raised.
We emailed the Duke office of research integrity for comment but have not heard back. Neither of the authors replied to our emails requesting comment.
Duke isn’t a stranger to cases of faculty members misusing federal funding. As we reported in 2018 in Science, the National Institutes of Health took the unusual step of requiring that grantees at the school seek permission to modify new or existing grants. That came before a record-setting $112.5 million settlement agreement between the school and the U.S. government over charges of grant fraud and after allegations of misconduct against members of Duke’s psychiatry department.
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