A professor was placed on leave — prohibiting him from conducting research or teaching — days after he started his new job at Rutgers University, university officials said.

Xiaobing Zhang, an associate professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark, was put on leave Sept. 14, shortly after the university received a letter from an animal rights group saying he was barred from his previous research lab at Florida State University following accusations involving the mistreatment of animals.

Zhang, a neuroscientist, was working for less than two weeks at Rutgers before he was put on paid administrative leave, according to campus officials.

Zhang did not respond to an email request for comment.

He began his job at Rutgers Sept. 3, according to university spokeswoman Megan Schumann. He had not conducted any animal-related research since joining the university.

“The matter is currently under review,” Schumann said. “He will not be involved in any research or teaching at Rutgers during this time.”

At his previous job at Florida State University, Zhang was conducting surgical experiments on digestion in laboratory mice, when two whistleblowing graduate students alleged animals had been mistreated, investigators said in a report filed in April with Florida State’s animal care committee. Florida State forwarded the report to the National Institutes of Health.

The students alleged Zhang’s lab provided only one of a recommended four doses of pain relief to mice. They also alleged the lab had been changing records to hide the mistreatment, investigators said.

After Florida State investigated, university officials shut down part of the $413,000 research project and prohibited Zhang and two other employees from working in their lab for a year, the report said.

At Florida State, Zhang was also accused of failing to sedate mice before they were euthanized by decapitation, the report said. The complaints against him involved operations on nearly 1,600 animals, and the alleged falsification of 110 records.

Florida State officials did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

An animal rights activist wrote to Rutgers about the findings of the investigation of Zhang’s lab in a Sept. 11 letter. The watchdog group called on Rutgers to prohibit the researcher from continuing experiments on animals in his new lab in New Jersey.

“Falsification of documents is not ethical,” wrote Michael A. Budkie, executive director of Stop Animal Exploitation NOW, an Ohio-based national watchdog of research facilities. He sent the letter to Michael A. Zwick, senior vice president for research at Rutgers.

“Denying animals pain relief is not humane,” Budkie wrote.

Zhang was previously given the opportunity to address violations in his Florida State lab in 2021, but failed to make changes, according to university reports on the lab.

According to the National Institutes of Health, Zhang received funding for four projects between 2022 and 2024, totaling $1.8 million, all at Florida State University.

The National Institutes of Health did not immediately answer questions about the status of the federal funding for Zhang’s research project.

Zhang posted on LinkedIn in early September that he relocated his lab and needed an associate research scientist, postdoc researcher and lab technician at Rutgers.

Schumann, the Rutgers spokeswoman, cited “personnel matters” when she declined to say if school officials first learned of the problems with Zhang’s previous lab through the Sept. 11 letter from the animal rights activist group. She also declined to describe the vetting process Zhang went through before he was hired.

Rutgers only conducts animal research if it is likely to improve the health of animals or humans, she said.

“We take animal care and welfare matters seriously and report all incidents to the appropriate authorities, outlining actions taken to ensure necessary protections and the continued welfare of the animals in our care,” she said.

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Tina Kelley may be reached at tkelley@njadvancemedia.com.