Dive Brief:
- A former Iowa State University researcher who admitted faking AIDS vaccine experiment results and was indicted on four felony counts of making false statements, has agreed to plead guilty.
- Terms of the plea deal for Dong-Pyou Han, whose case is in the U.S. District Court in Des Moines, are not yet known, the Des Moines Register reported.
- Han was forced out of Iowa State in 2013 after admitting to spiking rabbits’ blood to make it appear that a vaccine was working, which helped his team win millions of dollars in federal funding.
Dive Insight:
Scientific fraud cases that lead to criminal charges are rare, and a conviction on felony counts of making false statements could mean prison. Iowa State has blamed Han alone for the fraud, which forced the school to repay $496,000 in federal grants, and another $1.4 million in grants yet to be paid were canceled. The research team is still conducting research into a possible vaccine. Han, 57, has health problems that have made it difficult for him to travel from Indiana to court, and he still may change his plea.
