Case closed: UW researcher found guilty of falsifying AIDS data

A former UW scientist fabricated AIDS research by altering images and fabricating data, according to an investigation report made public through the efforts of The Seattle Times.

The exhaustive 16-month long investigation of Scott J. Brodie, accused of manipulating computer images of cells to resemble two distinct images, was concluded in December 2003, but the report was not made public until legal proceedings between The Seattle Times, the UW and Brodie ended last week, in favor of The Seattle Times, which fought to release the investigative documents.

The 2003 report, conducted by an investigation committee through the UW's Office of Scholarly Integrity, determined that Brodie intentionally manipulated data. The committee recommended that he be banned from further employment at the UW and that any future work be "viewed with suspicion."

"Dr. Brodie falsified [figures] and ... he did so knowingly and purposefully. Honest error was not involved," investigators wrote in the report.

The investigation was a long and complex process, said UW professor Denny Liggitt, chair of the Department of Comparative Medicine and one of the investigators on the committee.

"It was very important for us to do a thorough investigation to demonstrate we would be proactive in that regard, to either exonerate him or find that he was complicit," Liggitt said. "It's best to deal with the truth."

The UW was notified in August 2002 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Research Integrity that an individual had noticed some anomalies in Brodie's work. Investigations began shortly thereafter.

The course of the investigation did not run smoothly, said Norm Arkans, executive director of media relations.

"These are not easy things to wade through and sift through," Arkans said. "We had to understand the nature of the experiments and what was going on."

Nine computer hard drives were confiscated from Brodie's lab, in addition to notes, computer disks and files. Two investigators took possession of Brodie's home computer as well.

"We were trying to be fair," Liggitt said of the process. "The truth needs to be pursued vigorously when the integrity of science is at stake."

The report found that Brodie had committed academic misconduct in 15 instances, including published and unpublished journal articles and grant proposals, to make a point, namely that the HIV virus can replicate in certain cells.

"Accepted scientific practices do not allow a scientist to falsely label an image as suits his or her fancy simply because such work is conducted in the scientist's lab; to do so is instead a gross deviation of accepted scientific practices," investigators wrote.

Oddly enough, Brodie's conclusions were found to be correct and supported by later research, said UW professor Lawrence Corey, head of the UW's virology division in the Department of Laboratory Medicine, in The Seattle Times. Brodie worked in Corey's retrovirus laboratory.

"Did he set back crucial research? The answer is no," Corey said in the Times article.

In January, The Seattle Times sought access to public records at the UW detailing academic misconduct over the past five years, but was prevented from obtaining the documents when Brodie, under the pseudonym "John Doe," sued the University and the newspaper from releasing his records.

Judge William Downing of the King County Superior Court ruled that as part of the state's Public Disclosure Act, the public has the right to know when a researcher engages in academic misconduct.

"The public certainly has a legitimate interest in knowing that outcome, the underlying facts and the process by which [academic misconduct] were found," Downing said.

Cases of academic misconduct at the UW are rare, Arkans said, which is a good thing considering the University receives billions of dollars in research and has around 1,000 research projects ongoing at any one time.

"This doesn't happen very often, but when it happens, the University takes these things pretty seriously," he said.

Brodie resigned before the investigation could be concluded and now lives on the East Coast, where he could not be reached for comment.

[Reach reporter Arla Shephard at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]