David Sabatini pictured above. (Whitehead Institute)
In August 2021, David Sabatini, M.D., Ph.D., a cell biologist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, part of the Massachusetts Institutes of Technology (MIT), was fired for sexual harassment of at least two women. Per an email posted on Twitter that was purported to be sent to Whitehead staff from the institute’s director Ruth Lehmann, a legal investigation “found that Dr. Sabatini violated the Institute’s policies on sexual harassment among other policies unrelated to research misconduct.”
Sabatini sued, claiming he was the victim of false claims made to “exact revenge against a former lover.”
One of the women, who has not been identified, filed a counterclaim yesterday in Middlesex Superior Court against Sabatini. The counterclaim alleged Sabatini coerced the woman into sex and that his laboratory had a “toxic and sexually charged” environment.
Sabatini is best known for discovering mTOR kinase, a master regulator of protein translation, cell growth, and proliferation, and associated signaling pathway. He discovered it as a graduate student in the 1990s.
Sabatini’s attorneys stated, “David Sabatini, the actual scientist, colleague, manager and mentor, bears no resemblance to the person described in the recently filed counterclaim, and that will become clear as this case progresses.”
In Sabatini’s lawsuit filed in October, he claimed the sexual relationship was...
The League clarified that its forums are intended to give voters a side-by-side look at candidates’ platforms, not to endorse contenders. The League of Women Voters of the St. Petersburg Area (LWVS...