Professor accused of falsifying data

Officials at the University of Connecticut Health Center say they sent letters to 11 scientific journals saying a member of its faculty fabricated data. Philip Austin, interim vice president for health affairs, said Dipak K. Das, a professor in the department of surgery and director of the Cardiovascular Research Center, was subject to a three-year investigation that examined more than seven years of work in Das' laboratory. He was employed by the health center since 1984, and awarded tenure in 1993. "We have a responsibility to correct the scientific record and inform peer researchers across the country," Austin said in a statement. An anonymous allegation of research irregularities in 2008 triggered the investigation, which is written in a comprehensive report totaling some 60,000 pages and has been forwarded to the U.S. Office of Research Integrity, Austin said. The investigation alleged Das guilty of 145 counts of fabrication and falsification of data. "We are grateful that an individual chose to do the right thing by alerting the appropriate authorities," Austin said. "Our findings were the result of an exhaustive investigation that, by its very nature, required considerable time to complete." The journals notified were: -- American Journal of Physiology -- Heart & Circulatory. -- Antioxidants & Redox Signaling. -- Cellular Physiology & Biochemistry. -- Free Radical Biology. -- Free Radical Research. -- Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry. -- Journal of Cellular & Molecular Medicine. -- Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry. -- Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. -- Molecular & Cellular Cardiology. -- Molecular & Cellular Chemistry.