The US Office of Research Integrity has found that Timothy Sheehy, a former SAIC-Frederick contractor, committed research misconduct, according to a notice in the Federal Register.
Investigations by SAIC-Frederick and ORI found that he fabricated data reported in a 2010 Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention paper on recovering both RNA and DNA from FFPE samples at the same time.
"ORI found that Respondent fabricated the quantitative and qualitative data for RNA and DNA purportedly extracted from 900 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) colorectal tissue samples … and falsely reported successful methodology… when neither the extractions nor analyses of the FFPE samples were done," the notice says. "Thus, the main conclusions of the CEBP paper are based on fabricated data and are false."
According to the notice. Sheehy has entered into a three-year voluntary settlement agreement in which he agrees to supervision of any federally funded research he conducts, to refrain from participating on peer review and other advisory committees at NIH, and to retract the CEBP paper.
Retraction Watch adds that Sheehy had since moved on from SAIC-Frederick — which is now Leidos Biomedical Research — to Promega's genomics section and that Sheehy had received an NIH Merit Award in 2011.