A former graduate student at the University of Cincinnati falsified data in a published article, since retracted, and an unpublished manuscript, according to government investigators.
The U.S. Office of Research Integrity (ORI) said Logan Fulford doctored images while working at the university on experiments supported by two federally funded grants. Fulford, who is now a senior clinical research associate at IQVIA, a health care consulting company, entered into a voluntary settlement with the agency but neither denied nor admitted to the misconduct.
The published paper, titled “The transcription factor FOXF1 promotes prostate cancer by stimulating the mitogen-activated protein kinase ERK5,” appeared in Science Signaling in 2016. Fulford was first author on the article, which the journal retracted in 2018, after initially flagging it with an expression of concern.
In addition to the Science Signaling paper, Fulfored “engaged in research misconduct by intentionally, knowingly, and/or recklessly falsifying data that were included,” according to the ORI, in an unpublished manuscript titled “Foxf1 Deficient Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts Promote Prostate Cancer Progression via Paracrine Wnt11 Signaling.” Fulford did so, the ORI said,
by reusing and relabeling images to represent the expression of different proteins and/or different experimental conditions.
Fulford agreed to have any federally funded research supervised for two years. Reached by Retraction Watch, he declined to comment, saying:
This represents an incredibly painful period in my life and I want nothing more than to move on.
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