“He doesn’t report the results [of Bassin’s research], but he does worse than that, he contradicts them,” Wiles said.
Christina Bruske, a spokeswoman for the NIEHS, said officials there had reviewed the EWG’s complaint and alerted the Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for examining the results of a university’s investigation.
“In order to receive grant money [from the NIH], each university has to put in place a mechanism” to investigate such charges, Bruske said. She added that “various measures [could be] put in place” by the government to punish Douglass if Harvard concludes there was wrongdoing.
In a statement released Wednesday, the Dental School said it “takes all allegations of misconduct seriously and has a standard system for reviewing allegations of research impropriety.”
“The school will assemble an inquiry committee to review the questions raised concerning the reporting of this work,” the statement said.
A spokesman for University President Lawrence H. Summers declined to comment.
—Staff writer Brendan R. Linn can be reached at blinn@fas.harvard.edu.