By Alison McCook, The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS)
PHILADELPHIA — Penn State has taken the unusual step of revealing it has “indefinitely” prohibited a biomedical engineer from conducting research, after a review of her scientific papers found several contained “unreliable data.”
The investigation into the work of Deb Kelly was sparked by allegations that the data in some of the dozens of scientific papers she has co-authored appeared problematic. Penn State asked external experts to review her work, and they “confirmed the presence of unreliable data in several papers,” according to a university statement. The university has alerted the scientific journals that published the affected papers, as well as the federal agency that monitors research integrity.
“Dr. Kelly is currently employed at Penn State, but, as of May 2024, she is indefinitely prohibited from conducting research, pursuing grants or contracts, submitting publications, or making presentations on behalf of the Pennsylvania State University,” the university said in its statement.
Kelly did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A lawyer who submitted a letter on Kelly’s behalf to a scientific journal also did not respond to a request for comment.
It’s rare to see universities permanently strip researchers of their ability to conduct research — in part, because universities rarely make these sanctions public, said Ivan Oransky, co-founder of Retraction Watch, which tracks retractions and scientific misconduct, and first reported the investigation into Kelly’s work. Still, in the 14 years since Retraction Watch began, Oransky said he’s seen only a “couple” of permanent bans. “It is quite rare.”
What happened at Penn State “seems like an unusual case,” Oransky added.
In recent years, the scientific community has become more aware of the scope of misconduct in their ranks, and more transparent when it happens. Still, stories of outright fraud in science remain rare.
In Philadelphia, a Temple researcher came under fire in 2020 when his colleagues raised concerns about the validity of his findings, and several of his papers have since been retracted from the academic literature. (The researcher, Domenico Praticò, denied engaging in scientific misconduct.)
Last year, a former longtime scientist at the University of Pennsylvania agreed to a seven-year ban on using federal funds to conduct research after an investigation determined that his lab had falsified data from experiments in pigs with brain injuries.
In comments to Retraction Watch, sent through her legal counsel and published in September, Penn State’s Kelly defended her work, and said she was “under no restrictions” in her research. In a subsequent comment to the outlet published later that month, also sent via her counsel, Kelly said that she was “embarking on new opportunities.”
Kelly is listed as the executive director of Structural Oncology LLC, which offers technical expertise to study the molecular underpinnings of disease, and says it is creating at-home rapid tests for some types of cancer.
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