Former Harvard cancer researcher plagiarized data, federal watchdog says

A former research fellow at Harvard Medical School faked data and used images from another scientist without attribution in a published paper and two grant applications, according to findings from the U.S. Office of Research Integrity. 

The researcher, Arunoday K. Bhan, was also a former staff scientist at City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, Calif., and first author on “Human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived platelets loaded with lapatinib effectively target HER2+ breast cancer metastasis to the brain,” which appeared in Scientific Reports in October 2021. The article has been cited eight times. 

The paper was retracted in March. The retraction note cited an investigation by City of Hope and detailed “discrepancies in the data” that match ORI’s findings. 

ORI said it found Bhan relabeled multiple images in the paper as representing different cells than they portrayed, “without appropriate citation to the researcher who generated the image[s].” 

According to the agency, Bhan received funding from a grant to Boston Children’s Hospital meant to support postdoctoral fellows in transfusion medicine and cellular therapies “enabling them to move on to leading positions in academia or industry.”

Bhan agreed to have his research supervised for four years, and not to serve in any advisory role for the U.S. Public Health Service, which includes peer review committees at the National Institutes of Health. 

Bhan did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent to his City of Hope address, which did not bounce. We were not able to find information on his current position.

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