Scientist in US jailed for spiking blood samples in HIV research

A former university scientist who altered blood samples to make it appear he had achieved a breakthrough towards a potential vaccine against HIV has been sentenced in the United States to more than four-and-a-half years in prison for making false statements in research reports.

Dong-Pyou Han, 58, also must pay US$7.2 million to a federal government agency that funded the research. He entered a plea agreement in February admitting guilt to two counts of making false statements.

Government prosecutors said Han's misconduct dated to 2008 when he worked at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland under professor Michael Cho, who was leading a team testing an experimental HIV vaccine on rabbits.

Cho's team began receiving federal funding, and he soon reported the vaccine was causing rabbits to develop antibodies to HIV, which was considered a major breakthrough.

Han said he initially accidentally mixed human blood with rabbit blood making the potential vaccine appear to increase an immune defence against HIV, the virus that can cause Aids. Han continued to spike the results to avoid disappointing Cho, his mentor, after the scientific community became excited that the team could be on the verge of a vaccine.

Iowa State University recruited Cho in 2009, and his team - including Han - continue the research with National Institutes of Health funding. A group of researchers at Harvard University found in January 2013 the promising results had been achieved with rabbit blood spiked with human antibodies.

Han's attorney Joseph Herrold, a federal public defender, asked for probation instead of prison.