Mc Mirchandani Case Study

Research Misconduct: Alec Mirchandani Case
Serving as a research volunteer at Florida Atlantic University (FAU), Alec Mirchandani involved himself in research misconduct. Mr. Mirchandani was studying mice behavior in a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) supported research when the incident happened.1 After the inquiry, in addition to his own admission, Mr. Mirchandani was faced with repercussions of his unprofessional behavior. For instance, he is now required to have all Public Health Service (PHS) funded research supervised for up to one year, and he is responsible for presenting to the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) a detailed procedure of his research supervision.1 Currently, the culprit has left FAU and is now enrolled at Ross University School of Medicine, this time as a medical student.2
Robert Vertes research lab. Dr. Vertes is a behavioral neuroscientist whose research emphasis is on the role of the hippocampus in learning and memory.3 Specifically, the misconduct took place during a project that set out to examine the role played by midline nuclear group in understanding, arousal, and attention.4 Mice are the animal subjects that were used in the project. Here, Mr. Mirchandani responsibility was to conduct a T-maze behavioral experiment on the subject mice1; T-maze is widely used in behavioral research to investigate learning mechanisms in animals. Sadly, Mr. Mirchandani did not conduct the experiment at all. He made up results on three mice that were used for T maze control in the project.5 To make matters worse, notebook and laboratory datasheets entries were made to make it seem as if the experiment was performed.1 Mr. Mirchandani proceeded to present the fabricated data to the project supervisor, which is a terrible act considering that the project received a grant from the