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H.M. Krishna Murthy

H.M. Krishna Murthy is a former researcher from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In 2009 several of his publications were retracted from scientific journals after accusations of scientific misconduct surfaced. UAB began investigating claims of fraud in January 2007 after the validity of the proteins came into question. The University’s probe produced ten publications that were shown not to be valid. These publications have since been retracted from their respective journals. Murthy’s publications dealt with the structure of twelve proteins that he had claimed to have discovered. It was found that these protein structures were never synthesized and the evidence of them proved to be fabricated by Murthy.

The Scandal

In 2007, H.M. Krishna Murthy was working as a researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham when questions regarding the authenticity of his work surfaced. , European crystallographers were looking into some of the structures that Dr. Murthy had claimed to have solved and began to see issues. Graduate students in Norway working under Dr. Gros also spotted problems throughout Murthy’s work. Gros pointed out the many missing layers throughout the structure of C3b. When asked to provide further information about the structures, Dr. Murthy could not provide enough information to prove their validity. Gros decided to check the work himself and discovered unrealistic and physically impossible data. Because of this, the university decided to launch an investigation. A committee of experts (appointed by the University of Alabama at Birmingham) in the field with no conflicting interests looked into the case and determined that the structures were more than likely fabricated. The group discovered that these structures defied many physical and chemical laws, further proving that these protein structures were fictitious. The team looking into the fraud suggested that the structures be removed from the public record.

In total, twelve of H.M. Krishna Murthy’s structures and ten of his papers were affected by this scandal. The papers were retracted by their respective journals and upon retraction, the structures were removed from the Worldwide Protein Database. The proteins in question were 1BEF, 1CMW, 1DF9, 2QID, 1G40, 1G44, 1L6L, 2OU1, 1RID, 1Y8E, 2A01, and 2HR0. In total, 449 papers were affected by this fraud. These papers covered a range of topics; everything from dengue viruses to Taq DNA polymerase.

Murthy’s most famous fraudulent structure was 1BEF. Published in 1999 and retracted in 2009, 1BEF was cited in over ninety publications. 1BEF was first mentioned in a now retracted article from The Journal of Biological Chemistry. The UAB team that investigated Murthy’s publications, said that 1BEF is “an improbable structure…[with] an unacceptable level of inter-atomic clashing.”

Aftermath

Murthy still claims he did not commit any misconduct in this case, but the evidence against him indicates otherwise. Murthy’s contract with the University of Alabama at Birmingham expired in February of 2007. The university chose not to renew the contract, ending their involvement with Murthy. Murthy’s current whereabouts are not known and no one has been able to reach him. Murthy has not published since the scandal was uncovered.