Researcher Accepts Misconduct Sanctions, Faces Criminal Charges
“Intentionally and knowingly falsifying and/or fabricating data, methods, results, and conclusions” are the wide-ranging behaviors constituting misconduct a physician and former postdoctoral fellow committed at two universities, according to the HHS Office of Research Integrity (ORI). In only its third finding of the year, ORI said Yiorgos (Georgios) I. Laliotis, M.D., a postdoctoral fellow at The Ohio State University (OSU) and Johns Hopkins University, inserted misrepresentations in lung and breast cancer research described in three published and two unpublished papers and two NIH grant applications.
The papers, published in 2021, were both retracted. Laliotis agreed to a three-year supervisory plan that must be submitted to ORI in advance should he wish to be involved in Public Health Service-funded research. The agreement, which began June 12, calls for a committee of two-to-three senior faculty members familiar with Laliotis’ work to monitor his research. Retraction Watch reported that OSU “terminated Laliotis from his postdoc position in November of 2021, and he apparently resigned from another postdoc position at Johns Hopkins University that same month. Whether both universities employed him at the same time is unclear.” Laliotis is also facing charges of “forgery, identity theft, and telecommunications fraud in connection with allegations he created a fake email address in the name of Philip Tsichlis, his [principal investigator] at Ohio State, and used it to send letters of recommendation purportedly from Tsichlis to prospective employers. Laliotis has pleaded not guilty to all charges,” the website said, adding that Tsichlis was the person who found the falsified data that led to ORI’s misconduct finding.