MIT President Sally Kornbluth is a Magnet for Research Fraud and Medical Misconduct

The Boston Globe uncovers some of Kornbluth’s shady past, but other examples have also been reported.

4 minute read

The Boston Globe published an incredible investigation highlighting yet another corruption scandal in academic research, this time involving two prominent research institutions—Duke University and MIT—tied together by Sally Kornbluth, the former head of research at Duke, who MIT picked as president in 2022. The Globe article adds to Kornbluth’s headaches as she has also been caught up in a dragnet of prestigious universities investigated by the Trump administration for alleged antisemitism and liberal political bias.

The White House spotlight likely spurred the Globe reporters to delve into Kornbluth’s past at Duke, uncovering court documents and sworn depositions by prominent Duke scientists. The Globe reported that, while at Duke, Kornbluth ignored scientific criticism and a whistle-blower pointing to corrupt, harmful research by a Duke physician treating patients dying from cancer.

But did anything happen to Kornbluth? No!

As the Globe documents, Kornbluth kept failing up, gaining ever more prominent positions at Duke, even as the university dealt with an increasing series of unethical research problems. (The Globe didn’t report on several other examples of Duke research misconduct, which are detailed below.)

The Boston Globe’s reporting doesn’t plow much new ground. In fits and starts, several media outlets covered the cancer research scandal overseen and ignored by Kornbluth while she was at Duke. The Globe just put all the pieces together into a comprehensive narrative (The Globe article is behind a paywall, but an MIT professor sent me a copy which you can read here).

Much of the news about Duke’s cancer research corruption was broken by The Cancer Letter, such as a whistle-blower complaint by a medical student, who Kornbluth and other Duke administrators tried to shut down: “Duke Officials Silenced Med Student Who Reported Trouble in Anil Potti’s Lab.” The Cancer Letter has an entire series devoted to the Duke Scandal which you can find here.

The federal government later charged Duke’s cancer physician with research fraud, finding that he had submitted false information in his grants to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Several of his papers published in premier research journals were retracted and he was banned for several years from receiving NIH grants.

But it doesn’t end there.

Kornbluth evaded any consequences from this highly detailed example of research fraud that harmed dying patients. On the contrary, Duke promoted Kornbluth to Provost, the chief academic officer overseeing the university’s teaching and research mission. “The Provost also engages with issues concerning admissions, financial aid, information technology, and all other facets of university life touching on academics,” explains Duke on their website.

Duke made national news for more fake scientific studies in 2019, while Kornbluth was Duke’s academic provost.

The Globe didn’t report this, but the Justice Department forced Duke to pay $112.5 million in 2019 because university officials submitted bogus data to win federal grants on a mouse study project.

“This settlement sends a strong message that fraud and dishonesty will not be tolerated in the research funding process,” said one federal official. “We will continue to take appropriate legal measures to ensure a fiscally sound system that protects grant funds.”

The Boston Globe missed another Kornbluth medical scandal that stayed hidden until I reported it in 2022—the same year MIT picked Kornbluth as their university president. Yes, Kornbluth is ensnared in even more academic sleaze.

While Duke Provost, Kornbluth ignored a 2019 complaint filed by Massachusetts’ Attorney General Maura Healey that charged Duke physician Ralph Snyderman and other board members of Purdue as co-defendants with the Sackler family for addicting millions of Americans on opioids. “Defendants Peter Boer, Judith Lewent, Cecil Pickett, Paulo Costa, and Ralph Snyderman took seats on the Board and knowingly advanced the Sacklers’ scheme.” The Daily Mail later named Ralph Snyderman in their report on this lawsuit.

As I reported in 2022, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s complaint runs 274 pages, with Duke’s Ralph Snyderman named 76 times. “Together with the Sacklers, they controlled the unfair and deceptive sales and marketing tactics Purdue used to sell its opioids in Massachusetts.”

According to the complaint, Snyderman voted with the Sacklers to hire hundreds more sales reps to sell opioids; to implement incentive compensation policies that aggressively drove opioid sales; and, to pay out millions of dollars to already convicted criminals to help the Sacklers keep their loyalty.

In November 2020, Purdue pleaded guilty in federal court to several felonies, admitting that it marketed and sold dangerous opioid products, lied to the Drug Enforcement Administration about steps it had taken to prevent the diversion of opioids, and that it paid kickbacks to encourage prescribing.

Yet, Kornbluth did nothing to address Snyderman’s corrupt behavior.

When I contacted Duke in 2022 to ask if they were looking into the Attorney General’s complaint against Snyderman, a Duke spokesperson emailed me, “I can’t comment on Ralph Snyderman. I’ll decline comment.”

Who knows what other research scandals MIT’s Sally Kornbluth has tried to bury or will ignore in the future?