Dipak Das Fired by UConn for Faking Resveratrol Data

Dipak K. Das is being processed for termination by the University of Connecticut for manipulating research data on the effect of resveratrol on heart health. The University has also notified 11 scientific journals in which Das had published studies on the potential health benefits of red wine.

The University launched a probe of Das in 2008 after an anonymous tipster alerted the U.S. Office of Research Integrity of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. The university review board has concluded that Das, who is director of the Cardiovascular Research Center the school of medicine in Farmington, manipulated research data in at least 145 instances over a seven year period. The data was cited in studies published in 26 journal articles.

“We have a responsibility to correct the scientific record and inform peer researchers across the country,” said a statement by Phillip Austin, the university’s interim vice president for health affairs.

Das was found to have improperly combined results from several experiments by altering a type of digital data readout known as a Western blot, an analytical technique used to detect specific proteins in tissue samples. The manipulations appear to have been calculated to make the data appear more coherent but the report doesn’t suggest the changes were substantial enough to effect the overall conclusions of the research.

The University’s Health Center has begun dismissal proceedings against Das and frozen all external funding to Das’s laboratory. It has turned down $890,000 in federal grants awarded to Das’s group.

Das denied any knowledge of the image manipulation when contacted by the review board. But the board found enough evidence to conclude that his “statement lacks credibility”.

Das is known for his studies on how the heart benefits from resveratrol, a compound found in red wine and certain plants. Many of them have been funded by the National Institutes of Health and have helped turn resveratrol into a popular nutritional supplement.

Despite Das’s eminence in the field of resveratrol research, the University’s conclusions of data manipulation aren’t likely to discredit the many studies showing the health benefits of resveratrol.

“This will cause a little chaos, but Dr. Das’s research was very much in the area of heart health, so the broader field is still on a solid foundation,” says Joseph A. Baur, Ph.D., an assistant professor of physiology at the University of Pennsylvania who coauthored a 2011 review article on resveratrol. “Research is not being brought to a screeching halt. The field will go on, even though this is something you never want to see.”

Resveratrol has attracted broad medical research interest since a study showing that helps obese mice live as long as fit mice without resveratrol. The compound is being studied around the world for its possible defense against cancer, diabetes, inflammation and aging, as well as obesity. The main weakness of resveratrol studies conducted so far is that they have only been done on animals and in lab settings. However, several long-term clinical studies on humans are now under way.