Former cancer research center director plagiarized and faked data, feds say

The former director of a cancer research center faked data and presented others’ published data and text as his own in four grant applications to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and one research record, according to a U.S. government watchdog. 

Johnny J. He, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science (RFUMS) in Chicago, Ill., “engaged in research misconduct by intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly falsifying, fabricating, and plagiarizing experimental data and text” published by other scientists, the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) said today.

He did not immediately respond to an email or phone call seeking comment. 

He started at RFUMS in 2020 as the director of the Center for Cancer Cell Biology, Immunology and Infection and the chair of the Discipline of Microbiology and Immunology. The cancer research center now lists another scientist as its director, but He remains among its members. 

He received nearly $15 million in NIH funding from 2000 to 2021, about $1.5 million of that total while at RFUMS. Before his current post, he was a professor at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. 

ORI found that He took figures from published papers by other researchers and used them to represent his own data in NIH grant applications, sometimes cropping and splicing the images. He also plagiarized text from published articles, ORI said. None of the grant applications with plagiarized and faked data were funded. 

He entered into a voluntary settlement agreement with the agency and agreed to a three-year period of supervision for his research. During that time, He may not serve on any advisory committee, board, or peer review committee for the U.S. Public Health Service, which includes the NIH.

We reached out to RFUMS for comment and received a statement from Ronald S. Kaplan, the university’s executive vice president for research, which read in part: 

The RFU Office of Research Integrity was alerted to allegations of research misconduct and conducted a thorough investigation, in strict accordance with university policies. The RFU investigation determined that research misconduct had taken place and promptly imposed appropriate sanctions and initiated the appropriate steps for remediation. RFU forwarded the investigation report to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Research Integrity as required by university policies and federal regulations. HHS ORI made findings of research misconduct that have been recently published and are nearly identical to our findings.

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