The director of the Southwest National Primate Research Center at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute has been placed under one year of federal research supervision for admittedly falsifying data in multiple instances.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Research Integrity released a report that it had found that Deepak Kaushal, professor and director of the Southwest National Primate Research Center, had “engaged in research misconduct” for work supported by federal funds.
According to the report, Kaushal was placed under one year of federal research supervision that began on July 22. The report states that Kaushal admitted to fabricating information on 10 different occasions within two federal grant applications and in a now-retracted paper.
The Texas Biomedical Research Institute confirmed via email Wednesday that Kaushal has been placed under federal supervision for one year. A Texas Biomed statement regarding the matter noted that these instances of fabrication took place before Kaushal was employed by Texas Biomed. Kaushal was named the director of the Southwest National Primate Research Center in 2018, and assumed the new position in January 2019.
A recent internal inquiry by Texas Biomed resulted in “a finding and admission of research misconduct, which the Institute reported to the Office of Research Integrity and which the office then recorded,” Texas Biomed said.
“Texas Biomed and [the Office of Research Integrity] have imposed ramifications on the researcher, including but not limited to a review of all study data produced in the next year prior to submission for either grant funding and/or peer-review publication,” Texas Biomed said. “It is important to note that corrective action was taken by Dr. Kaushal, including a repeat of the study with correct study design. The scientist has not received a research misconduct finding before and all data from studies carried out at Texas Biomed has been reviewed and found to be accurate.”
Texas Biomed said that it “takes findings of research misconduct very seriously,” and that the institute will provide research integrity refresher training to all scientific staff this fall.
Kaushal will be allowed to stay in his position as director of the Southwest National Primate Research Center, Texas Biomed said.
“Dr. Kaushal is an outstanding and transformative SNPRC director and the misconduct finding is not directly related to, and does not impact, his administrative leadership functions,” Texas Biomed said. “The inquiry of Dr. Kaushal’s research program has been completed and mechanisms have been put in place to ensure that this cannot happen again. The Institute and the Office of Research Integrity will monitor his studies for the next year, per the agreement, and the Institute has implemented additional corrective actions and consequences for Dr. Kaushal.”
As first reported by Retraction Watch, Kaushal has entered into a voluntary settlement agreement and has agreed to have his research supervised for one year. Under this agreement, Kaushal must submit a plan for supervision to the U.S. Public Health Service or Office of Research Integrity before submitting any grant applications for U.S. Public Health Service funds.
“The supervision plan must be designed to ensure the integrity of [Kaushal’s] research,” the report notes. “[Kaushal] will not participate in any [U.S. Public Health Service]-supported research until such a supervision plan is approved by [the Office of Research Integrity]. [Kaushal] will comply with the agreed-upon supervision plan.”
The plan will require a committee of two to three senior faculty members at Texas Biomed to review data from Kaushal’s laboratory on a quarterly basis and to submit a report to the Office of Research Integrity on their findings for the next year. This committee will also have to conduct a review of each application Kaushal is involved in if it’s for, or includes, Public Health Service funds.
During this time, along with each application, Texas Biomed will also have to send to the Office of Research Integrity a certification that the data provided by Kaushal is based on actual experiments and/or real data. Kaushal will also not be allowed to serve in any sort of advisory or consultant capacity during this time.
As director of the Southwest National Primate Research Center, Kaushal is responsible for overseeing the operations of “a more than $40 million National Institutes of Health-funded national resource for primate research.” Kaushal’s studies have focused primarily on tuberculosis in non-human primates.
Texas Biomed fell under scrutiny last year by PETA and other animal rights activists when it had to amputate frostbitten fingers, toes, and tail tips from 159 of its baboons as a result of Winter Storm Uri in February 2021. The institute has touted its position over the past two years for the research it’s performing on COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.
Founded in 1941, the Texas Biomedical Research Institute is a nonprofit that specializes in genetics, virology, and immunology research. It is home to the Southwest National Primate Research Center — one of only seven national primate facilities in the U.S. Texas Biomed cares for about 2,500 primates.
The Texas Biomedical Research Institute is a financial supporter of the San Antonio Report. For a full list of business members, click here.
