Dollars for Profs

Dig Into University Researchers' Outside Income and Conflicts of Interest

Published Dec. 6, 2019

This database was last updated in December 2019 and should only be used as a historical snapshot. There may be new or amended records not reflected here.

Financial doc
Filing Type

Conflict of Interest

Institutions must file significant disclosures to the National Institutes of Health if they determine financial relationships could affect the design, conduct or reporting of the NIH-funded research. The NIH provided us with their entire financial conflict of interest database, with filings from 2012 through 2019.

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Steven George

Washington University, Department: Biomedical Engineering

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Disclosed Conflict of Interest with

4Design Biosciences LLC

Disclosed Value
Listed Reason
Intellectual property rights (e.g., royalties, patents, copyrights) not from the awardee Institution

Based on WU’s Research COI Policy and the Procedures for Determining and Managing Research Financial Conflicts of Interests, the Conflicts of Interest Review Committee (CIRC) determined Dr. George’s personal financial relationship with 4Design Biosciences LLC, related to the above referenced research, creates a financial conflict of interest due to the following reasons:
1.) The primary focus of 4Design Biosciences LLC, an entity with which Dr. George owns equity, is to create and commercialize application-specific 3D microphysiological systems for drug development, which is directly related to the subject of the research,
2.) Dr. George’s personal financial relationship is directly related to the study because the study is evaluating a product licensed by 4Design Biosciences LLC,
3.) Since Dr. George owns equity in the company and will earn royalties from the sale and distribution of the licensed technology, he could directly benefit, should the company’s value increase as a result of the study,
4.) Dr. George’s role as Principal Investigator could directly affect the outcome of the study.

While the CIRC determined Dr. George has a financial conflict of interest, there are mitigating factors that help address the situation:
1.) Dr. George is uniquely qualified by virtue of his expertise and experience, and the research could not be conducted as effectively without his involvement,
2.) Other, non-conflicted, internal and external faculty and collaborators, not under Dr. George’s supervision, are involved in the conduct, review, and reporting the results of the research,
3.) The research is in an early ‘proof of concept’ phase, and no commercial product is currently available,
4.) As 4Design Biosciences LLC creates (b)(4) that are specific to the needs of each client, the outcomes of the research are unlikely to directly affect the value of the company.

Listed Research Project
"(PQ8) BONE MARROW-ON-A-CHIP":AN INVITRO 3D MODEL OF BREAST CANCER DORMANCY

PROJECT NARRATIVE This proposal will develop a novel 3D in vitro model of human bone marrow comprised of perfused human microvessels, bone marrow stromal cells, and bone-forming cells (osteoblasts). The model will be used to characterize the relationship between systemic inflammation, extravasation, and dormancy in breast cancer. The results may lead to new therapeutic options to target dormant breast cancer cells in the bone marrow.

Filed on September 01, 2016.

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Name Institution Type Company Disclosed Value
Steven George University of California, San Diego Conflict of Interest 4Design Biosciences, LLC $0 - $4,999
Steven George Washington University Conflict of Interest 4Design Biosciences, LLC $0 - $4,999
Steven George Washington University Conflict of Interest 4Design Biosciences $0 - $4,999
Steven George University of California, San Diego Conflict of Interest 4Design Biosciences, LLC Value cannot be readily determined
Steven George Washington University Conflict of Interest 4Design Biosciences, LLC Value cannot be readily determined
Steven George Washington University Conflict of Interest 4Design Biosciences, LLC Value cannot be readily determined
Steven George University of California, San Diego Conflict of Interest 4Design Biosciences, LLC Value cannot be readily determined
Steven George Washington University Conflict of Interest 4Design Biosciences Value cannot be readily determined
Steven George Washington University Conflict of Interest 4Design Biosciences LLC Value cannot be readily determined
Steven George Washington University Conflict of Interest 4Design Biosciences Value cannot be readily determined
If you see an error in the database or a reason we should not disclose a record, please contact us at [email protected] and we'll evaluate it on a case-by-case basis.
Sources: National Institutes of Health, public records requests filed at multiple public state universities

Notes: When a more specific filing date is not available for an individual financial disclosure or conflict of interest form, we use the year the form was filed. If the year was not disclosed, we report the range of years covered by our public records requests. In a few cases, a start date was provided instead of a filing date. In those cases, we use the start date instead.

Fewer than 10% of records from the University of Florida and fewer than 1% of records from the University of Texas system were removed because they did not contain enough information.

ProPublica obtained additional financial disclosures and conflict of interest forms that we have not yet digitized and added to the database. You can download those disclosures in the ProPublica Data Store.

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