NEWS | IN DEPTHPHOTO: SYLVAIN GABOURY/PATRICK MCMULLAN VIA GETTY IMAGES444 29 APRIL 2022 • VOL 376 ISSUE 6592 science.org SCIENCET
he New York University (NYU) Gross-
man School of Medicine is in discus-
sions with biologist David Sabatini
about hiring him as a faculty mem-
ber, according to multiple sources
at the school. Since August 2021,
Sabatini has been forced out of or fired from
three leading institutions for sexual harass-
ment or for violating workplace or consen-
sual sexual relationship policies. The hiring
discussions have been taking shape over
several weeks, according to NYU sources.
“Any decision about a potential role [for
Sabatini] at NYU Grossman School of
Medicine would be subject to careful
and extensive due diligence and con-
sultation with a broad group of stake
holders,” the school said in a state-
ment this week.
“David defers to NYU on this pro-
cess,” a Sabatini spokesperson said.
In an email to faculty and staff last
week, the medical school’s dean de-
cried what he called “cancel culture.”
And last month, a prominent philan-
thropist defended Sabatini to a crowd
of elite researchers in New York City.
But numerous faculty members at
NYU’s medical school are disturbed
by the prospect of hiring Sabatini,
saying the move sends a message
of tolerance for sexual misconduct
and hostile lab environments. “We
are deeply concerned that recruiting
an individual found guilty of having bro-
ken the policies of prestigious institutions
such as MIT [the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology], the Whitehead Institute and
HHMI [the Howard Hughes Medical Insti-
tute] may profoundly damage our culture
and reputation,” reads a letter to the dean
and vice dean that had 66 faculty signatures
as of midafternoon Tuesday.
“I’m concerned for the culture of the in-
stitution,” said one faculty member, who
asked to be anonymous for fear of retalia-
tion by administrators. “The accusations
made are really serious. ... Is this signaling
that in the future students that come for-
ward for any kind of faculty misconduct
will be disregarded?”
However, some current and former
Sabatini lab members are enlisting anony-
mous signatures for an online letter support-ing him. The letter says the signers “never
experienced or observed an abusive lab cul-
ture or a sexualized lab environment, and we
did not witness sexual harassment. ... Work-
ing in David’s lab was one of the most influ-
ential and fortunate events of our careers. ...
We hope that this letter will contribute posi-
tively in your decision to hire David.”
Sabatini, a prominent cancer biologist,
resigned from MIT earlier this month after
senior officials recommended revoking his
tenure. They found he had violated MIT’s
policy on consensual sexual relationships
and expressed “significant concerns regard-
ing his professional behavior to some labmembers,” President L. Rafael Reif wrote to
MIT faculty on 1 April.
In August 2021, Sabatini was forced out
of the Whitehead. An outside law firm
had “found that Dr. Sabatini violated the
Institute’s policies on sexual harassment,
among other Whitehead policies unrelated
to research misconduct,” Director Ruth
Lehmann wrote to Whitehead staff. HHMI,
which had funded Sabatini’s Whitehead lab,
fired him at the same time, saying he had
violated workplace behavior policies.
The institutions have not provided
details about the behaviors that led to
Sabatini’s removal, but the Whitehead com-
piled a 229-page report, according to a def-
amation lawsuit Sabatini filed in October
2021 against the Whitehead, Lehmann, and
a junior colleague who told investigators
that Sabatini had sexually harassed her. Hehad served on her Ph.D. thesis committee,
and she became a Whitehead fellow with her
own lab in a program he was soon appointed
to direct. She filed a counterclaim against
Sabatini in December, arguing his law-
suit was frivolous and retaliatory. (Science
does not name targets of alleged sexual mis-
conduct without their permission.)
Sabatini’s hire may have support from
a benefactor who could make up some of
the funding Sabatini lost when HHMI
fired him. Billionaire hedge fund founder
Bill Ackman of Pershing Square Capital
Management supports coveted awards for
early-career cancer researchers. Sabatini is
a reviewer for those awards and at-
tended a 1 March Pershing Square
Foundation dinner at Manhattan’s Le
Bernardin restaurant. In his remarks,
Ackman bemoaned what he called
Sabatini’s unfair treatment and said
sidelining Sabatini’s work would be
detrimental to the field. (Ackman was
not available for comment.)
On 21 April, NYU medical school
dean and CEO Robert Grossman sent
his monthly email to medical school
faculty and staff, titling it “Civility
Rules.” “A mob feels compelled to stri-
dently ‘cancel’ someone with different
thoughts, or to baselessly attack an in-
dividual in ways that can be difficult
to disprove,” he wrote. “[This is] tol-
erated in academia, where nameless
accusers can disparage a colleague’s
science and life’s work, even when
their claims are unfounded.” Grossman de-
clined to comment further.
Former Sabatini postdoc Anne Carpenter,
now a computational biologist at the Broad
Institute, noted on Twitter that in early
April she was asked to sign the anonymous
letter of support. “I will not sign,” Carpenter
wrote in a tweet thread on 10 April. She
wrote that although the MIT investigation
did not involve her, she was not surprised
by its findings.
In his lawsuit, Sabatini had cited
Carpenter’s successful career as an ex-
ample that “contradicts a finding that
women were disadvantaged” in his lab. But
Carpenter called that logic “appalling” in
her thread. “My success is not evidence
that he did not break policies,” she wrote.
“It does not prove that he treated men and
women equally in the lab.” jBy Meredith WadmanSCIENTIFIC COMMUNITYNYU may hire biologist pushed out of MIT
Med school is in talks with David Sabatini, despite sexual misconduct findings
Cancer biologist David Sabatini, pictured at a 2019 awards dinner.