UMass: Professor caught in sex sting not working on research project

November 13, 2007 02:35 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

The University of Massachusetts Medical School professor who said he was conducting research on infectious disease during his arrest in a Worcester prostitution sting is studying gonorrhea in human subjects, a school spokesman said today.

However, the school was not aware that the study -- "Immunology of Infection with Neisseria Gonorrheal" -- involved a trip to the corner of Main and Grand streets Saturday afternoon, where Dr. Peter A. Rice was arrested after allegedly offering to pay an undercover female officer $40 for sex.

"I don't think that his arrest had any connection to his work with the university," UMass spokesman Mark Shelton said this afternoon.

The gonorrhea study is one of two of Rice's research projects approved by the university that involves human subjects. “I don’t have any information or reason to think that Dr. Rice was working on either of these research projects” Shelton said.

Rice, 65, was one of 21 people arrested by Worcester police in a two-day sting. He is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday. Neither Rice nor his attorney, Michael K. Fee, returned a phone message left today seeking comment.

Rice told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette that he was "gathering information" when he was arrested, adding, "I'm not guilty."

Rice has been conducting his gonorrhea study since 2004 and has received more than $2.1 million in funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Extramural Activities, according to Research Crossroads, a website that tracks publicly funded research.

Before joining the UMass Medical School, Rice was ousted in January 2005 as chief of infectious disease research at the Boston University medical school. While Rice was in charge at BU, several researchers were exposed to tularemia, a bacterial illness commonly known as rabbit fever.