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 linkurl:reported.;http://ori.dhhs.gov/misconduct/cases/Afshar.shtml Nima Afshar, a postdoc working with UCSF molecular biologist linkurl:Joachim Li,;http://cancer.ucsf.edu/people/li_joachim.php 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," linkurl:Ben Black,;http://www.med.upenn.edu/camb/faculty/cbp/black.html a cell biologist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia who did his PhD alongside Afshar in linkurl:Bryce Paschal's;http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/cellsignaling/bpaschal.cfm lab of the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville, told __The Scientist__. "My...

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