Dr. Myria Petrou Asks Dr. Eva Feldman About NIH R01 Grant Charges During IRB Suspension — NIH Records Document $347,636 in Disbursements
On September 26, 2026, Dr. Myria Petrou wrote to University of Michigan neurologist Dr. Eva Feldman about a financial question first raised with Dr. Dana Habers six years ago.
Dr. Feldman was a co-investigator on NIH R01 Grant R01NS082304 and oversaw the ALS Clinic through which patients were recruited for the study. Dr. Feldman also had a longstanding professional relationship with Dr. Bradley Foerster, having served as Dr. Foerster’s mentor since Dr. Foerster was a fourth-year medical student in 1998.
The question now put directly to Dr. Feldman is straightforward:
What expenses were being charged to the NIH R01 grant while its associated research was suspended by the University of Michigan Institutional Review Board and later terminated, and what work did those charges support?
The September 2020 correspondence with Dana Habers is forwarded with the new email. Dr. Petrou and Dr. Foerster were already questioning substantial NIH R01 grant disbursements made after the associated research had been suspended and ultimately terminated. No response from Habers to those questions appears in the forwarded correspondence, and the questions remained unresolved.
But there is considerably more context today.
An earlier FBI production included a February 21, 2019 FBI record documenting that federal officials were discussing “restitution and debarment” and identified Dr. Foerster in the debarment passage.
A later release of the same February 21, 2019 FBI record identified Dr. Petrou in the corresponding debarment passage.
The two releases therefore provide differently redacted versions of the same FBI record. Yet when records concerning the debarment process were later requested from HHS-OIG, HHS-OIG reported no responsive records for the requested debarment process involving Dr. Foerster and/or Dr. Petrou.
The records issue extends beyond debarment. Federal records also document a U.S. Attorney’s Office declination of criminal prosecution, while subsequent searches of the identified U.S. Attorney’s Office produced no responsive records. That discrepancy is part of a larger unresolved question concerning whether the HHS-OIG investigation concerning NIH R01NS082304 was the predicate, in whole or in part, for the FBI investigation .
That was not the documentary context Dr. Petrou and Dr. Foerster had when they first raised questions about the NIH R01 grant disbursements in 2020.
The NIH R01 Grant Disbursements
The chronology is striking.
In the September 26 email, Dr. Petrou cites University effort records identifying July 4, 2017 as the effective date Dr. Foerster’s 22.6% NIH R01 grant effort was removed “due to IRB suspension” and moved to a departmental account.
In the forwarded 2020 correspondence, Dr. Foerster also recalled that Dr. Feldman emailed Dr. Foerster that same day and said no work could be done on the NIH R01 grant until the IRB was functioning.
The NIH financial record attached to the September 26 email shows:
July 31, 2017 — $174,993.64
October 31, 2017 — $7,806.74
January 31, 2018 — $90,647.38
May 4, 2018 — $33,206.67
August 1, 2018 — $40,981.86
Total — $347,636.29
The formal IRBMED suspension notice followed on August 4, 2017. As described in Dr. Petrou’s email, the notice required research-related activities, including data analysis, to stop and stated that “expenditure of federal research funds (including salary support) must stop.”
In December 2017, IRBMED terminated the NIH R01 grant-associated studies. The termination notice stated that no identifiable data could be collected or analyzed at the University until the project was re-approved by IRBMED.
When Dr. Foerster asked whether Dr. Petrou could assume responsibility so the work could continue, IRBMED rejected that option:
“The study was properly terminated on December 7, 2017, and remains closed.”
Yet the NIH financial record shows NIH R01 grant disbursements continuing through August 2018.
The NIH record shows how much was disbursed and when. It does not show what expenses the University was charging to the NIH R01 grant or what work those expenses supported.
Questions for Dr. Feldman
One question concerns Dr. Petrou’s separately active ALS Association IRB, HUM00113609.
Dr. Petrou was its PI. Dr. Robert Welsh was not on that IRB. At the same time, records later obtained from the University of Utah showed that the NIH R01 grant subcontract involving Dr. Welsh totaled $256,555 and was ultimately paid in full.
The September 26 email does not claim that Dr. Petrou’s ALSA IRB was used for the NIH R01 grant. Dr. Petrou asks Dr. Feldman directly:
“If it was not used, please tell me that directly.”
If it was used, Dr. Petrou asks who authorized it, when, and how that occurred without Dr. Petrou’s knowledge.
Dr. Feldman was also directly connected to another financial question. After Duaa Altaee transferred to Neurology in September 2016, Dr. Feldman was responsible for Altaee’s timesheets through Altaee’s termination in December 2017. Dr. Feldman had previously described Altaee as an “essential team member for the grant” and recognized Altaee’s recruitment and patient-assessment work.
The email asks whether there were retrospective adjustments to Altaee’s NIH R01 grant salary or effort and whether any of those costs were questioned, adjusted, or returned.
Dr. Petrou also returns to the request in early 2018 that Dr. Petrou submit an ALSA grant report in place of Dr. Foerster and asks whether that request had anything to do with the NIH R01 grant, its IRB status, its financial administration, or the NIH review.
And with the later FBI records now available, Dr. Petrou asks what Dr. Feldman was told at the time about the HHS-OIG and FBI investigation, possible adjustments or returns of grant money, and potential federal debarment.
Dr. Petrou keeps that question narrow:
“I am not asking you to resolve those federal records issues. I am asking what you were told at the time.”
The Question Remains
The NIH R01 grant financial question was raised in 2020.
The records available today add an important layer that was not known then: two differently redacted versions of the same February 21, 2019 FBI record, federal discussions of restitution and debarment, HHS-OIG reporting no responsive records for the requested debarment process, and federal records documenting a criminal-prosecution declination for which subsequent searches of the identified U.S. Attorney’s Office have produced no responsive records.
But the financial question itself is much simpler:
What expenses were being charged to the NIH R01 grant while its associated research was suspended by the University of Michigan Institutional Review Board and later terminated, and what work did those charges support?
That question has now been put directly to Dr. Feldman.
As of October 16, 2026 no reply from Dr. Eva Feldman is reflected on the record.The NIH R01 grant disbursements are documented. The underlying charges — and the work those charges supported — remain unresolved.
Primary Documents
September 26, 2026 — Dr. Myria Petrou Email to Dr. Eva Feldman
The new correspondence, including the forwarded September 2020 emails
raising the NIH R01 grant disbursement questions with Dr. Dana Habers.
NIH R01 Grant R01NS082304 Financial Record
NIH financial record showing FY2017 award disbursements totaling
$347,636.29, including the July 31, 2017 disbursement of
$174,993.64 and subsequent disbursements through August 1, 2018.
HHS-OIG Case 5-17-0-0192-4 Documentary Chronology
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Selected Reporting
- Bradley Foerster Submits 140-Exhibit, 1,121-Page Documentary Chronology to FBI for Supervisory Review of the Investigation Involving Dr. Bradley Foerster, Dr. Myria Petrou, and Duaa Altaee
- From One FBI File to a Legislative Proposal: Peter and Maria Foerster Ask Senator Van Hollen's Office and Congressman Jamie Raskin to Consider a Uniform Administrative Framework for Federal Investigations
- Eva Feldman Documentary Chronology: 139 Exhibits on NIH R01NS082304, University Proceedings, and Federal Investigation — No Response Received
- Bradley Foerster and Myria Petrou Send Ann Arbor Officials Documentary Chronology on AAPD and Related Federal Investigations — No Response Received
- Timothy Lynch Documentary Chronology: 63 Exhibits on University of Michigan Office of General Counsel, University Investigations, and Law Enforcement — No Response Received
- Bradley Foerster and Myria Petrou Documentary Chronology: 8 Exhibits Document More Than Two Years of Efforts to Trace Bank of Ann Arbor's $1.4 Million Sheriff's Sale Credit Bid — No Response Received
Brad Foerster, MD PhD
Brad Foerster is a FOIA advocate documenting requests, transparency disputes, and accountability investigations involving public agencies, universities, police oversight, and Russia-Gate related inquiries. His work compiles original documents, timelines, and analysis of public records and institutional responses. Brad is also a board-certified radiologist, author of Town & Gown, and has published over 40 peer-reviewed articles. Brad lives in Potomac, Maryland with his family and is a member of the Montgomery County Medical Society and the Takoma Park U.S. & World History Book Club.