A University of California, San Francisco, postdoc ripped off images from a colleague and jiggered data files, the NIH's Office of Research Integrity (ORI) recently reported.

Nima Afshar, a postdoc working with UCSF molecular biologist Joachim Li, falsified microarray scans related to the molecular mechanism of yeast replication initiation. Specifically, she fudged images from another researcher's experiment to make her own data look as if there were gene amplifications indicative of replication re-initiation. In total, she faked 36 data files, the ORI concluded based on a UCSF investigation and Afshar's own admission.

None of the falsified images were published, according to UCSF officials.

Afshar's misconduct "comes as a complete surprise to me," Ben Black, a cell biologist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia who did his PhD alongside Afshar in Bryce Paschal's lab of the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville, told The Scientist. "My experience with her was that she would painstakingly go through experiments and repeat them to validate and know that they were right. That would be inconsistent with her cooking the books." Paschal declined to comment in a telephone request from The Scientist.

Under the terms of the ORI's settlement, Afshar voluntarily agreed to exclude herself from taxpayer-funded research for the next three years unless a formal supervisory scheme was in place.

Li told The Scientist that he has had "no contact with [Afshar] since the day that I talked to her initially about this [misconduct]," and he does not know her current whereabouts. Li declined to comment further about the case.

UCSF's online directory lists two Nima Afshars, though it only contains contact information for one of them -- a male emergency medicine doctor. USCF officials did not respond to requests regarding Afshar's current location. Further, they did not provide details of the investigation nor how the misconduct came to light.

"Other than the information published by the ORI, the findings of the investigation are confidential," Corinna Kaarlela, UCSF's news services director, wrote in a statement. "None of the misconduct affected published manuscripts, abstracts, posters, talks, or grants." UCSF's procedures are posted on the university's academic affairs website, Kaarlela noted.


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