The fiery trail of his fall raced through research centers across the country, and lit up certain corners of social media. In this case, the lab joins a colleague in celebrating a scientific paper appearing in a prestigious journal.įew cases in the scientific community have been as polarizing as this one.
The best young scientists from across the world yearned to work in his lab, an electric place that untangled cellular mysteries critical in the study of neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, diabetes, and aging.ĭavid Sabatini, standing to the left of the poster, and his lab members often paused to mark the personal and professional milestones of its members. In fact, Sabatini had been a bright light during Boston’s emergence as the Silicon Valley for biotech. Until the controversy erupted, Sabatini had spent 24 years at Whitehead without a misconduct allegation in his personnel file, according to a Globe review of human resource files shared by him. In a matter of months, an illustrious lengthy career had been shattered, maybe for good. The speed and totality of his downfall were stunning. Their sexual encounters - which violated Whitehead’s strict relationship policy - ended with him courting another woman who used to work in his lab, and Knouse for complicated reasons turning slowly, but powerfully, against him. They later got to know each other better through a shared love of science and fine whiskey. Sabatini and Knouse had met in 2012, when she was a star student in a graduate course Sabatini co-taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His ouster came within 24 hours of his receiving a copy of a Whitehead investigative report accusing him of violating sexual harassment policies and of enabling a toxic and bullying atmosphere in his 40-person lab.ĭeeply damaging to Sabatini was the revelation he had had a past sexual relationship with a brilliant young Whitehead scientist with a similar title but much less research experience and stature, Kristin Knouse, in her early 30s.
Next Read part two A broken bond, a shaken citadel of science
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