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Researcher admits fraud in grant data

 

Ex-Vermont scientist won nearly $3m from US

 

By Carey Goldberg and Scott Allen, Globe Staff | March 18, 2005

In the worst case of scientific fakery to come to

light in two decades, a top obesity researcher

who long worked at the University of Vermont

admitted yesterday that he fabricated data in 17

applications for federal grants to make his work

seem more promising, helping him win nearly $3

million in government funding.

Eric T. Poehlman, a leading specialist on

metabolic changes during aging, acknowledged that

he altered and made up research results from 1992

to 2002, including findings published in medical

journals that overstated the effect of menopause

on women's health.

Under a plea agreement with federal prosecutors,

Poehlman, 49, will be barred for life from

receiving federal funding, pay back $180,000, and

plead guilty to a criminal charge of fraud that

could bring jail time. He agreed to ask

scientific journals to retract and correct 10

articles they published by him.

''Dr. Poehlman fraudulently diverted millions of

dollars, " said David V. Kirby, the US attorney

for Vermont. ''This in turn siphoned millions of

dollars from the pool of resources available for

valid scientific research proposals. As this

prosecution proves, such conduct will not be

tolerated. "

The fraud charge carries up to five years in

prison, but lawyers involved in the case said

Poehlman would ask for leniency and would

probably get a lesser sentence or possibly no

prison time at all.

Poehlman's misconduct was detected and exposed by

a former University of Vermont lab technician,

Walter F. DeNino, who once viewed Poehlman as his

mentor.

Poehlman was a star among obesity researchers.

For years at the Universities of Vermont and

Maryland and, since 2001, at the Université de

Montréal, he won millions in grant dollars,

copious prizes, and accolades from the students

he mentored.

Over two decades in which he published more than

200 journal articles, he built a reputation as a

leading authority on the metabolic changes that

come with aging, particularly during menopause.

He also studied the genetics of obesity and the

impact of exercise, often following human

subjects over time to document how their

physiology changed.

Now that stellar career has unraveled. Poehlman

resigned from the Université de Montréal in

January. He did not respond to requests left at

his Montreal home and with his attorney to be

interviewed.

Some colleagues speculated that Poehlman buckled

to an exaggerated perception of the pressure to

publish papers and win grants to keep his

laboratory going. Or perhaps he was so sure he

knew the right answers that he cut corners to get

to them, they said.

DeNino, the lab technician, said in an interview

that he does not know what Poehlman was thinking,

but the benefits were clear: The fabricated data

made his grant proposals more appealing and his

papers more publishable, helping Poehlman become

one of the better-funded researchers at the

University of

Vermont.

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