A research technician at Washington State University was caught fabricating gene sequencing data and resigned, Retraction Watch reports.
It adds that the fabrication came to light when the technician, Ryan Evanoff, produced sequencing results that were completely different from what an outside lab had reported on the same samples. Robert Mealey, the chair of the department of veterinary clinical sciences department at WSU, tells RW that the school conducted a full investigation and that Evanoff left WSU before he could be fired.
RW notes that the fabrication affects at least two papers and that one, appearing in the Journal of Virology, has been retracted. That paper purported to examine intrahost evolution of hepacivirus A envelope variants, but, as the retraction notice says, the Pacific Biosciences sequencing data it relied on was fabricated. The other affected paper in the Equine Veterinary Journal is in the process of being retracted, according to RW.