HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - A University of Connecticut researcher known for his work on red wine's benefits to cardiovascular health falsified his data in more than 100 instances, university officials said Wednesday.
UConn officials said nearly a dozen scientific journals are being warned of the potential problems after publishing his studies in recent years.
The researcher, Dr. Dipak Das, did some studies of resveratrol, an ingredient in red wine that has shown potential for promoting health.
But Dr. Nir Barzilai, whose research team conducts resveratrol research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, told The Associated Press that Das is not a major figure in the field. The new allegations will not make a material difference to resveratrol research, which is being conducted extensively around the world with encouraging results from many labs, Barzilai said.
Enthusiasm in the potential health benefits from red wine grew after a widely reported study in 2006 in which obese mice lived longer, healthier lives after getting resveratrol. Das was not involved in that research.
UConn officials said their internal review found 145 instances over seven years in which Das fabricated, falsified and manipulated data, and the U.S. Office of Research Integrity has launched an independent investigation of his work.
It wasn't immediately known Wednesday whether the irregularities in Das' research were significant enough to alter the conclusions.
Das is director of UConn Health Center's Cardiovascular Research Center. Eleven scientific research journals that have published Das' work are being notified of the problems, which came to light after a three-year review sparked by an anonymous complaint in 2008 of potential irregularities in his research.
"We have a responsibility to correct the scientific record and inform peer researchers across the country," Philip Austin, interim vice president for health affairs, said in a written statement about the notifications to the 11 scientific journals.
The university's health center recently declined to accept $890,000 in federal grants awarded to Das as its review was under way, and has frozen all other external funding for his lab.
Dismissal proceedings have also been launched against Das, who has been employed by the Health Center since 1984 and was granted tenure in 1993. Das could not immediately be reached Wednesday, and messages were left for him through the union representing him.