USC probes grant breach

The Department of Defense has asked USC to investigate allegations that one of its top cancer researchers obtained confidential peer review information and tried to use it to influence the awarding of as much as $375,000 in federal grant money.

Interviews and records show that a research grant proposal by USC professor W. Martin Kast was disallowed after his alleged lobbying efforts were disclosed by the chief of peer review panelists looking into prostate cancer research proposals. The Kast proposal involved research into a vaccine for the disease.

According to those familiar with the controversy, Kast learned not only the ranking of his grant proposal among reviewers but also the identity of those reviewers and the individual scores each had given to his project.

The peer review process is customarily secret to prevent outside pressures.

Col. Janet R. Harris, director of the grant program for the Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, called the incident “an egregious breach” and an attempt “to influence the scoring.”

In a Sept. 4 letter sent to peer reviewers for the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, Harris wrote that her agency “cannot and will not tolerate any breaches of confidentiality in its proposal review processes.”

She said the proposal “was immediately withdrawn from further review” and the “applicant and the applicant’s institution were formally notified of the incident.”

USC spokesman Jon Weiner said in an e-mail: “We are aware of the situation. We’ve evaluated this action against our university policies and procedures and have taken appropriate personnel action as a result.”

Kast declined to be interviewed or to respond to written questions.

However, during an e-mail exchange he complained he was being made “a scapegoat” and that his reputation in science was being damaged by “this matter that is so blown out of proportion.”

Kast joined USC in 2003 and was hailed as “a key addition” to the university’s tumor immunology program. The native of the Netherlands is the author and co-author of more than a dozen research articles on cancer and immunology. He also is listed as the owner or co-owner of several immunology patents filed in the United States and Europe. And he serves as a member of advisory committees to biopharmaceutical firms.

Unlike typical vaccines, which work to prevent disease, therapeutic vaccines, which Kast has been working to develop, are designed to stimulate the immune system to fight off cancer cells already present in the patient.

Neither Harris nor Michael Nishimura, chairman of the peer review pool, would identify the applicant or institution, but The Times confirmed that it was Kast of USC who obtained the confidential information, apparently from a peer reviewer.

Nishimura, a professor at the Medical University of South Carolina, said in an interview that the grant applicant called him and tried to persuade him to have one of three peer reviewers raise the score for the proposal. He declined to give further details, citing the ongoing investigation.

Under the congressionally directed Department of Defense program, $591.2 million in grants are being given out this year. Of that, $80 million will go to prostate cancer proposals. Individual awards can range up to $375,000 over three years.

In Harris’ letter to all peer reviewers, she warned that stern action would be taken against individuals and institutions that violate the program’s confidentiality requirements. Not only could they be barred from future participation in the program she directs, but violators also could face debarment from “all federal activities.”

wally.roche@latimes.com