The director of the Southwest National Primate Research Center at Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio faked data 10 different times in federal grant applications and a now-retracted paper, according to the U.S. Office of Research Integrity.
The Texas primate center has garnered some attention during the pandemic for taking part in tests of a COVID-19 vaccine and treatment unrelated to the faked data.
Deepak Kaushal, according to his bio, “oversees the SNPRC operations, a more than $40 million NIH-funded national resource for primate research” and “is principal investigator on 15 NIH-funded grants and is co-investigator of 9 other NIH grants.” He “engaged in research misconduct by intentionally, knowingly, and/or recklessly falsifying and fabricating the experimental methodology to demonstrate results obtained under different experimental conditions,” the ORI found.
The fabrications began when Kaushal “falsified and fabricated the numbers for treated and untreated non-human primates (NHP) used” in a study submitted to the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine in 2019 and published in 2020.
The paper was retracted in 2021. The notice acknowledged that “treatment of a cohort of the animals did not conform to the stated experimental protocol” but claimed that “Since analysis of the other cohort of animals that did not experience protocol deviation generated similar results, the conclusions of the article may be correct.”
Kaushal included those faked data in grant applications submitted in 2019 and 2020, according to the ORI, which cites his admission.
Kaushal agreed to one year of supervision for any federally funded work, and appears to still be serving as director of the facility. His email auto-reply reads: “I am not readily available this week. As such, a reply to your message may be delayed.”
The Texas primate center took part in Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine tests, according to a July 2021 story in Nature that also noted:
The Southwest NPRC at Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio has received about $3 million from the NIH to expand capacity by 10-20%. The centre currently holds 2,500 animals, mostly baboons, rhesus macaques and marmosets. Separately, Texas Biomedical is planning a new building to house 1,000 more monkeys, and funding most of the $13.5-million cost.
“Animals at Texas Biomed were also used to study Regeneron, the monoclonal antibody therapy given to former President Trump when he had COVID-19,” according to Texas Public Radio. Kaushal told TPR:
We work very ethically. We are regulated very ethically and very strongly by regulatory boards that will not allow us to hurt our animals.
Update, 2200 UTC, 8/3/22: Texas Biomedical Research Institute vice president for communications Lisa Cruz confirmed that Kaushal remains in his role:
Dr. Kaushal is an outstanding and transformative SNPRC director and the misconduct finding is not directly related to, and does not impact, his administrative leadership functions. The inquiry of Dr. Kaushal’s research program has been completed and mechanisms have been put in place to ensure that this cannot happen again. The Institute and the Office of Research Integrity will monitor his studies for the next year, per the agreement, and the Institute has implemented additional corrective actions and consequences for Dr. Kaushal.
Cruz said she does not have the details of the corrective actions and consequences.
Like Retraction Watch? You can make a tax-deductible contribution to support our work, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, add us to your RSS reader, or subscribe to our daily digest. If you find a retraction that’s not in our database, you can let us know here. For comments or feedback, email us at [email protected].
“…is principal investigator on 15 NIH-funded grants and is co-investigator of 9 other NIH grants.”
I understand that primate research is expensive, but isn’t it time the NIH imposed a limit on the number of grants that a PI can hold at a given time? How many other primate researchers have had to abandon the field because there was not enough $$$ to fund THEIR innovative research work with primates?
I also wondered about this; I saw a few cases: how a researcher can hold 5 R01s; how he/she can manage people for carrying out the 5 huge grants (not even scientific work). Something not quite right.
Exactly! Especially limit the grants to PI that fake data. Maybe to zero!
Better to pursue answers with clinical and other non-animal methods.
“the misconduct finding is not directly related to, and does not impact, his administrative leadership functions. ”
What leadership functions are they imagining for which being dishonest is not a disqualifier? He can’t provide a role model for ethical behavior in his institute, that’s for sure. He can’t be trusted to enforce rules and regulations correctly. I fear that what this really means is “he brings in lots of money and we have no desire to interfere with that.” Sickening. I would not work for these folks.
I dont get how he hasnt been fired either.
Please see the following statement by PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo:
Deepak Kaushal should be removed as director of the Southwest National Primate Research Center and barred from receiving publicly funded grants. He has betrayed the government, the scientific community, and taxpayers by falsifying and fabricating information on his grant application and in published work—all while he was infecting monkeys with tuberculosis and simian immunodeficiency virus. He is also a coauthor of the primate center’s much-touted Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine study. The monkeys he hurt and killed for his own aggrandizement and to gain well-paying positions of authority have no recourse, but the National Institutes of Health should require the return of all funds Kaushal received and should make sure he never gets his hands on another animal or taxpayer dollar.
For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
Tasgola Bruner
Media Manager
Laboratory Investigations & Regulatory Testing
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
@tasgolabruner
peta doesn’t get to chime in on an issue of scientific integrity because their entire shtick is making up lies about research practices.
PETA does not have any credibility when it comes to statements on how to treat animals.
https://www.sacurrent.com/news/head-of-san-antonio-based-texas-biomeds-primate-lab-admits-to-faking-research-data-29519590
So is RW now a shill for PETA?
Seriously, why is this person getting a slap on the wrist? I thought the Southwest National Primate Research Center used to be a respectable place. Don’t they care about their reputation?
Institute Statement: Research Integrity Inquiry
Posted: 08.05.2022
Texas Biomed and the U.S. Office of Research Integrity (ORI) conducted an inquiry, confirming that a study completed by Dr. Deepak Kaushal prior to his tenure with Texas Biomed included study information/data that was inaccurately represented and this action met the ORI definition of “research misconduct”. The full summary from ORI is here: https://ori.hhs.gov/content.
ORI gave Dr. Kaushal the minimum consequences. This was a first-time incident, and to our knowledge, the only time this has happened in Dr. Kaushal’s lab. Dr. Kaushal retracted the paper that featured this data and corrected the study using appropriate study implementation. The results were exactly the same. Study results from this repeat study have been published (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35862216/). Data from all studies carried out at Texas Biomed have been reviewed and found to be accurate.
In addition to ORI oversight, Dr. Kaushal has received internal consequences, including significant oversight of his lab. Texas Biomed is confident that this will not happen again and that Dr. Kaushal can continue to lead the Southwest National Primate Research Center capably and with integrity.
– Dr. Larry S. Schlesinger, Texas Biomed President/CEO
His comments were inaccurate. See below. more problems with Dr. Kaushal’s papers.
https://pubpeer.com/publications/B50B4A270E1A2F535A91D665579820https://pubpeer.com/publications/DC0B8A1909DEFA4903168EC2C3DDEFhttps://pubpeer.com/publications/436424B1F99084A58E4C0AFACE3263
“It’s disappointing that there’s no real consequences,” says JoAnne Flynn, a microbiologist at the University of Pittsburgh who studies tuberculosis in monkeys—the topic of Kaushal’s study. She worries the case and the lack of action by SNPRC will fuel public doubts about animal research. “It’s bad for the field,” she says. “There’s already such mistrust of science.”
https://www.science.org/content/article/primate-research-center-head-will-keep-job-despite-misconduct-provoking-shock-and
“[…] one year of supervision for any federally funded work […]” ORI still continuing with not achieving anything at all.
The Kaushal lab has established collaborations with Dr. Shabaana Khader (Washington University in St Louis), Drs. Jyothi Rengarajan, Daniel Kalman, Henry Blumbery (Emory), Dr. Joel Ernst (UCSF) and Drs. Jay Rappaport and Chad Roy (Tulane).
Texas Biomedical Research Institute (TBII) President/CEO Dr. Larry Schlesinger has a retraction after misconduct.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-33608-y
Dr. Kaushal has been demoted in April, 2023.
https://www.peta.org/blog/primate-director-demoted-after-pressure-from-peta/