Ex-Duke lab tech permanently banned from receiving federal funding

A former Duke University researcher who was fired in 2013 for embezzling funds from the institution has, in a rare move, been permanently banned from receiving federal funding after investigators concluded she used fabricated data to solicit federal grants. Erin Potts-Kant and a former colleague were named in a whistleblower lawsuit in 2015 alleging that the two — with Duke’s knowledge — had used falsified data to collect hundreds of millions of dollars across 60 different NIH grants. Now, the agency’s Office of Research Integrity — which investigates such cases — has concluded that Potts-Kant used fabricated data in nearly 120 figures across 39 published papers — fewer than half of these have been retracted thus far. Duke settled the case earlier this year for $112.5 million.