Luk Van Parijs was an associate professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Center for Cancer Research. After investigating for a year, MIT fired Van Parijs for research misconduct. Van Parijs admitted to fabricating and falsifying research data in a paper, several unpublished manuscripts, and grant applications. In March 2011, Van Parijs pleaded guilty in a U.S. District Court in Boston to one count of making a false statement on a federal grant application. The government asked Judge Denise Casper for a 6-month jail term because of the seriousness of the fraud, which involved a $2-million grant. After several prominent scientists including Van Parijs' former post-doc supervisor pleading for clemency on his behalf, on 13 June, Van Parijs was finally sentenced six months of home detention with electronic monitoring, plus 400 hours of community service and a payment to MIT of $61,117 - restitution for the already-spent grant money that MIT had to return to the National Institutes of Health . Van Parijs' area of research was in the use of short-interference RNA in studying disease mechanisms, especially in autoimmune diseases. He was studying normal immune cell function and defects in these cells during disease development. Timeline About 1970: Born in Belgium. Before 1997: Receives undergraduate education at Cambridge University in England. About 1993 - 1997: Works in the laboratory of Harvard professor Dr. Abul Abbas at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH). 1997: Earns doctorate in immunology from Harvard. 1998 - 2000: Postdoctoral student in the laboratory of Dr. David Baltimore at MIT and California Institute of Technology. 2000: Joins the biology department at MIT. 2001: Named the Ivan R. Cottrell Career Development Assistant Professor of Immunology at MIT for a three-year term. July 2004: Promoted to the rank of associate professor at MIT, without tenure. August 2004: MIT begins a confidential investigation when a group of researchers in van Parijs' laboratory alleges research misconduct. September 2004: Placed on paid administrative leave and denied access to laboratory by MIT. 6 October 2005: Caltech begins inquiry (requested by Baltimore, "when New Scientist pointed out" problems in Caltech papers). (Date & quote: news media #8 and #18, below, respectively.) 27 October 2005: MIT fires van Parijs. 28 October 2005: News media coverage begins; Harvard/BWH and Caltech work questioned by New Scientist; Abbas determining "course of action" in light of New Scientist enquiries. 26 January 2006: Data in 2 Caltech