The scientist, Dong-Pyou Han, pleaded guilty to making false statements about research that he began in 2008 when he worked at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Han says he first mixed human antibodies with the rabbit blood being tested by mistake, and continued to taint the blood samples to avoid disappointing his mentor and the increasingly excited scientific community once his team reported that the vaccine had achieved promising results.
Han, a lawful permanent U.S. resident with a wife and two adult children in the United States, also risks permanent deportation and will have to repay the National Institutes of Health $7.2 million of the funding that the agency forked over for the vaccine study.