At its meeting on 5 July 2005, the Joint Committee of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) noted the fact that the case against Professor Stefanie Dimmeler, a cardiologist at the University of Frankfurt accused of scientific misconduct, has been closed. Following its investigations and after hearing Professor Dimmeler, the Committee of Inquiry on Allegations of Scientific Misconduct exonerated her from all allegations of scientific misconduct. This decision clears the way for her to be awarded the 2005 Leibniz Prize, which had so far been withheld due to questions concerning a number of publications from her institute.

In Professor Dimmeler\'s case a formal investigation was launched after the DFG received indications of irregularities and mistakes in three publications from her institute. The mistakes, which were admitted and subsequently corrected by publication of an erratum, only concern the figures used as representative examples in these publications. The findings published in the papers had all proven to be sound and reproducible. The false images had been prepared and selected for the publication by an experienced postdoc in Professor Dimmeler\'s research group.

As a result of this experience, Professor Dimmeler has now taken steps to ensure higher quality control by personally inspecting the primary data accompanying each figure. The Leibniz Prize certificate and the accompanying award letter will now be sent to Professor Dimmeler.

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