Bhagavathi Narayanan, a former researcher at NYU School of Medicine, falsified data in three papers and grant applications to the National Cancer Institute and National Institute of Health according to the U.S. Office of Research Integrity — a government organization that oversees and directs research integrity and accuracy. Narayanan has consequently agreed to not apply for grants through NCI and NIH for three years, beginning on February 26, 2018.

By the end of 2016, Narayanan retracted papers published in 2003, 2006 and 2011.According to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge and Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science, the papers were cited 69, 25 and seven times, respectively.

According to Retraction Watch, the retractions were due to missing original data. Along with retracting the papers, Narayanan reportedly  agreed to cease applications from grants for three years.

According to the Director of Public Relations at NYU Langone Medical Center Lisa Greiner, Narayanan no longer works at NYU School of Medicine.

The published papers of Narayanan have been investigated under the Principles and Procedures for Dealing with Allegations of Research Misconduct.

“All allegations involving the published work of Dr. Bhagavathi Narayanan, Ph.D. have been investigated thoroughly, as required under New York University policy,” Greiner said.

WSN could not find contact information for Narayanan for comment.

The journals which published Narayan’s papers — Clinical Cancer Research in 2003, the International Journal of Cancer in 2006, and Anticancer Research in 2011— have not been questioned for publishing papers with falsified data. However, some of Narayanan’s papers have been questioned on PubPeer.

An NYU School of Medicine professor who knew Narayanan said she was not often around campus. The professor asked to remain anonymous,

“Although Dr. Narayanan (and her husband) worked many years in the Department of Environmental Medicine of NYU Langone Medical Center, I really know little about her and her research projects because she rarely reached out and interacted with other researchers in the department,” the professor wrote in an email to WSN.

According to the professor’s experience, Narayanan did not get along well with researchers at NYU and the American Health Foundation where she previously worked.

“I was not surprised to hear that she left our department a couple of years ago,” he said.  “On the other hand, I was somewhat surprised by the way she departed.”

Narayanan’s profile was also removed from the Environmental Medicine faculty page of NYU Langone. The profile of, along with a frequent co-author Narayanan K. Narayanan, who co-authored all three papers with Narayanan, was also removed.

Email Christine Lee at [email protected].