The titan of cancer research, one of Italy’s star scientists in USA, Pier Paolo Pandolfi, is officially still listed at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Harvard, as director of the cancer genetics program. Except that he isn’t there anymore.
Science journalist Michael Balter tweeted namely:
“#Cancer researcher Pier Pandolfi was forced to leave Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center because of #MeToo #STEMToo allegations (kept secret.) He has now found a home at DRI and Renown Health. @BIDMChealth has passed the harasser”
#MeToo is the well-known code for sexual harassment and sexual abuse. The news was independently confirmed by my own source, who indicated to me already in early November 2019 that Pandolfi left Harvard, back then without having any further details or proof. The same source now confirmed that sexual harassment allegations were indeed raised against Pandolfi.
Noteworthy, Pandolfi was also known in the scientific community for pushing unreliable research results. 30 papers of his are discussed on PubPeer, but apparently suspected research misconduct was not the reason why Pandolfi left Harvard.
Two research institutions meanwhile proudly announced being graced by Pandolfi’s arrival. Harvard Medical School remains completely silent, even though Pandolfi was using his Harvard affiliation (and no other) just last week.
First, Italy.
That was a logical destination for a native Italian who lost his once grand standing in USA. It also fits that five years ago, Pandolfi was “knighted” by the Republic of Italy and received the title of the “Officer of the Order of the Star of Italy” from the Italian President. Italian academia is quite corruption-ridden and often celebrates the most inappropriate people.
The Istituto Veneto di Medicina Molecolare (VIMM) in Padova, run by the Fondazione per la Ricerca Biomedica Avanzata di Padova, announced on 20 May 2020 to have a new scientific director: Pandolfi. The VIMM institutional website prefers to keep its leadership team secret, but the foundation lists Luca Scorrano as the current scientific director of VIMM.
We also learn elsewhere that the foundation’s director is a certain Francesco Pagano, very excited to welcome Pandolfi. Another senior scientist featuring in the news announcement is Andrea Alimonti, who recently published a paper together with Pagano proposing to treat COVID-19 with “androgen-deprivation therapies”, an idea which grows increasingly popular since more men than women die from the coronavirus. This fits nicely, because also Pandolfi is already working on coronavirus therapies, together with Italian partners:
Pandolfi is quoted in Italian newspapers:
“It makes me very proud to take the leadership of VIMM and to be able to bring my long American experience back to Italy. The basis of our daily work will be research of the highest level in order to develop a true medicine of “ultra-precision”, in order to cure still incurable diseases that still afflict humanity today “
VIMM scientific advisory board however includes some real stars: Jean-Pierre Changeux, emeritus of Institut Pasteur, who most recently proposed tobacco products as COVID-19 preventive, stem cell luminary Rudolph Jaenisch, also from MIT David Sabatini (my readers will understand now why VIMM recruited Pandolfi) and even the late Sir Michael Berridge (who died in February, but apparently still advises VIMM).
The other appointment: Nevada.
On 18 May 2020, a press release was issued that Pandolfi will join the Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Reno, Nevada, to become Director of the Renown Institute for Cancer at the DRI’s Renown Institute for Health Innovation, whatever that is. If you never heard of DRI and their Gilead-sponsored Renown Institute, in biomedical context at least, this is exactly why Pandolfi goes there, because no serious US university will take him anymore apparently. It is Pandolfi’s last anchor in the USA, but how will he divide his work between leading VIMM in Italy and DRI in Nevada?
The press release quotes the celebrity arrival:
“Dr. Pandolfi will divide his time between Reno and Italy, also leading a cancer research institute in his home country that will foster knowledge exchange and international cancer research collaborations between Italy and Nevada.
“As a cancer researcher, my mission is to cure cancer. The Healthy Nevada Project and the combined resources of Renown Health and DRI give us access to an unprecedented amount of longitudinal data and the valuable genetic information we need to continue to improve our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of cancer and tailor approaches for treatments and cures that are unique to each individual” said Dr. Pandolfi.
“I am proud to take the unique resource of the Healthy Nevada Project, and use the information to accelerate our work to provide a population-level view of those factors that drive cancer, build better models and perhaps, timely new treatments. I am excited to build a strong collaborative bridge between the state of Nevada with our colleagues in Italy and across Europe, which will allow for the exchange of research fellows, physicians, scientists, and interns,” added Pandolfi.”
Read between the lines: no research grants or any financial or material support worth mentioning is on offer for Pandolfi’s new lab at DRI, and the Italians for sure will not be sharing either. The DRI and VIMM are apparently gambling on the NIH and the EU Commission, respectively, to not know why Pandolfi left Harvard and to cough up lots of grant cash because he is such a star.
Some papers
I previously discussed some Pandolfi papers in an earlier article about US cancer researchers. Here it is again:
S Zhong , P Salomoni , S Ronchetti , A Guo , D Ruggero , PP Pandolfi Promyelocytic leukemia protein (PML) and Daxx participate in a novel nuclear pathway for apoptosis The Journal of Experimental Medicine (2000) doi: 10.1084/jem.191.4.631
In both figures, someone inadvertently copy-pasted several bands, flipped them, stretched and retouched where needed, and voila, loading control for 8 lanes is ready. Happens daily. Another example of Pandolfi’s quality cancer research:
BS Carver , J Tran , A Gopalan , Z Chen , S Shaikh , A Carracedo , A Alimonti , C Nardella , S Varmeh , PT Scardino , C Cordon-Cardo , W Gerald , PP Pandolfi Aberrant ERG expression cooperates with loss of PTEN to promote cancer progression in the prostate Nature Genetics (2009) doi: 10.1038/ng.370
An image of a cell culture, copy-pasted and differently cropped by mistake of oversight to stand in for two different experiments. Not the only mistake in that paper: an gel image got re-used also.
E. M. Rego , L.-Z. He , R. P. Warrell , Z.-G. Wang , P. P. Pandolfi Retinoic acid (RA) and As2O3 treatment in transgenic models of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) unravel the distinct nature of the leukemogenic process induced by the PML-RARalpha and PLZF-RARalpha oncoproteins Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2000) doi: 10.1073/pnas.180290497
How can the same cell reappear in different images of physically different experiments? That was a “communicated” paper, meaning a friendly NAS member submitted it without proper peer review, but on endorsement from other friends.
C Giorgi , K Ito , HK Lin , C Santangelo , MR Wieckowski , M Lebiedzinska , A Bononi , M Bonora , J Duszynski , R Bernardi , R Rizzuto , C Tacchetti , Paolo P , PP Pandolfi PML regulates apoptosis at endoplasmic reticulum by modulating calcium release Science (2010) doi: 10.1126/science.1189157
That image duplication (shifted and zoomed!) was spotted by Elisabeth Bik, presumable one among a number of problematic Science papers she reported to the journal’s editors years ago, to no avail.
L Ma , J Teruya-Feldstein , P Bonner , R Bernardi , DN Franz , D Witte , C Cordon-Cardo , PP Pandolfi Identification of S664 TSC2 phosphorylation as a marker for extracellular signal-regulated kinase mediated mTOR activation in tuberous sclerosis and human cancer Cancer Research (2007) doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.can-06-4798
Are those really neighbouring tissue sections stained with different antibodies, highlighted in Figure 3A? Not likely, sequential sections are shown in other panels of this figure, and they don’t look identical. These two endometrium images seem to be same image, just shifted and colour-adjusted.
In 2016, a Cell paper from Pandolfi lab was corrected for a duplicated FACS plot. Other papers remain untouched.
Maybe now the journals will bother? This happened after another Harvard titan from Italy, Piero Anversa suddenly left for Switzerland (I was the first to figure out where: the Cardiocentro Ticino).
Regarding Pandolfi’s case: I will update this article when I obtain more information about his abrupt and stealth departure from Harvard.
Update 2.06.2020
Wolfgang Baumeister, member of VIMM Scientific Advisory Board and Max-Planck-Institute director in Germany, wrote to me:
“As the chair of the VIMM’s Scientific Advisory Board I want to let you know that this board was never consulted about Pandolfi’s appointment as the VIMM’s Scientific Director.
On 22 May, 2020 I wrote to Professor Francesco Pagano:
… I am writing this email in my role as the chair of the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of the VIMM. I was not amused to learn via various media about the change in the VIMM’s leadership, i. e. the appointment of Pier Paolo Pandolfi as its scientific director. This appointment became effective without any consultation with the SAB, nor were we informed about it. This is perceived as an affront. ….
I hope this clarifies the role and position of the SAB.”
Update 26.06.2020
Italian media started reporting. Corriere del Veneto writes that the entire scientific advisory board of VIMM announced to resign in protest against Pandolfi’s appointment. Fondation’s President Pagano is quoted:
“We have chosen to bring one of the greatest researchers in the world to Padua, and this of course has created a bit of turmoil and discontent. The appointment of the scientific committee is due to expire at the end of the year, the new director has the task of reorganizing it and therefore we had already planned to have to reappoint it, if the members all resign, it’s their choice. Pandolfi has no problem whatsoever, those accusations are just illusions.”
I personally understand Pagano. because Pandolfi now founded a new biotech start-up to cure COVID-19, Virna Therapeutics. His business partner Sachdev Sidhu wrote on his lab’s website:
“May 2020. To accelerate the development of antivirals to address the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Sidhu teamed up with Dr. Suresh K. Jain and Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi to found the new biotechnology company Virna Therapeutics. The company will leverage the expertise of the founding partners and will use several strategies to target the SARS-CoV-2 virus, including antibodies and protein-based enzyme inhibitors engineered at TRAC. Read the press release here.“
And here is Pandolfi on 29 May 2020 discussing how to save the world from the coronavirus with the Ambassador of Italy to the US, Armando Varricchio, and the Director of Science and Technology Policy of the White House, Kelvin Droegemeier.
Update 27.06.2020
The entire VIMM scientific advisory board plus the current scientific director Luca Scorrano resigned. More and more Italian newspapers report, especially Corriere della Sera, who found out the details of sexual harassment charges in Harvard, which led to Pandolfi’s firing on 23 May 2019, a year before he joined VIMM:
“It all started in February 2019, when a researcher from the laboratory directed by Pandolfi (laboratory where his wife also works) turns to the leadership of the University to file a complaint. The accusation is heavy: the young woman claims that for almost a year she would have been the center of her boss’ attention, such as to have caused her not only serious internal disturbances but also professional and career difficulties. The young woman reports that she has received appreciation in public; but not only. She explains that the professor has been sending her sentimental emails for months and that constantly requested to talk to her. Twice, months later, she reminds the professor that his attentions gave her in serious embarrassment and asks him to keep the conversations on work issues. Pandolfi however does not stop. Keeps on writing them. He sends her songs. He repeats that he would like to talk to her.”
Corriere della Sera even interviewed Pandolfi who admits the affair, saying that he just likes to hug people and “I have been investigated and I apologized“:
“The conclusion was that it was a marginal episode, contained and that I am not some scoundrel who goes after any woman in the lab. In essence, it was a romantic misdeed. Non sexual. “
Pandolfi then says that he “never used offensive or vulgar terms in emails” and that “If anyone was to be angry it was my wife. And she understood that I had a moment of weakness“. He denied claims from Boston sources that he hasn’t been seen in his Harvard lab since 2019.
Corriere then asks “Schneider and Balter claim that Harvard forced you to leave. It’s true?“, and Pandolfi replies:
“I will act legally against these two gentlemen, who bring charges against me.“
There was a press conference at VIMM where the President of Italian Senate, Elisabetta Casellati, tried to circumstantially defend Pandolfi’s appointment by saying that VIMM research is needed to develop a therapy against COVID-19. Read this great article in Padova Oggi, it has videos!
And do read this reader’s comment about Pandolfi’s research irreproducibility and his bullying of lab members.
Update 28.06.2020.
It seems, Italian academia is about to have its own #MeTooSTEM moment, thanks to the Pandolfi affair. Antonella Viola, professor at University of Padua and former scientific director of VIMM, protested against Pandolfi’s behaviour and the excuses in an open letter in Corriere, titled: “I was molested by my boss, I will tell you how it feels“.
Update 30.06.2020
Pandolfi’s appointment at VIMM has now been revoked.
This is the statement of the Foundation in Padua:
“The Board of Directors of the Foundation for Advanced Biomedical Research today resolved to revoke the appointment of prof. Pier Paolo Pandolfi as Scientific Director of VIMM.
The decision was taken with deep regret in consideration of the extraordinary scientific qualities of Prof. Pandolfi and the research development potential that these would certainly have guaranteed at the highest levels, but nevertheless it becomes necessary, after learning the story in which Prof. Pandolfi was involved in Harvard University, of which the Foundation had not been informed.
The Foundation, in light of the values that characterize its activity, cannot neglect the story of which Prof. Pandolfi was the protagonist, without compromising the image and reputation of the Institute, its researchers and supporters.
The Foundation will proceed as soon as possible to appoint the new Scientific Director of VIMM in order to guarantee the continuity of the research activity.”
Wolfgang Baumeister informed me that the entire scientific advisory board has indeed resigned. He wrote to me:
“We are working to ensure that PPP’s appointment is revoked and that [Foundation’s President] Pagano himself resigns.“
Update 5.12.2021
Pandolfi is now established at Renown Health, a private hospital in Reno, Nevada. Officially, he is not physically at DRI anymore. A Nature article (which plagiarised mine and Balter’s reporting) declared:
“He took on a part-time faculty position at the multidisciplinary Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada, in May, but resigned from the post on 30 June…“
The reality is that Renown’s Chief Scientific Officer and the only other researcher next to Pandolfi there, is Joseph Grzymski, professor at DRI. He also runs a genetic testing business called Healthy Nevada Project, whose first goal is “increase educational attainment and economic output via population health strategies to improve health outcomes“. Hopefully it’s not eugenics….
Here is DRI recruiting most obviously for the Pandolfi lab. Obviously he is still working at DRI, because Renown does only clinical work and has no other labs, as a source told me.
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In Nevada, prostitution is legal in certain counties. The near availability of consensual-for-a-price sex may be an attractive feature of his new location. In short: hookers galore, for the willing. Could be a nice perk.
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Sexual harassment is not primarily about sex, but about power, humiliation, and perverse entitlement . A Harvard professor can sure afford to run a private bordello, but where is the fun in that?
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2 jobs in 2 scenic parts of the world (West Coast only a short flight away from Reno, Nevada),
many air miles to be collected in due course.
2 jobs likely pay better than 1. What more could you ask?
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Gonna be tough getting international flights. And then there’s the 2-week quarantine at either end.
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This does not seem like punishment for a very questionable researcher.
In science, cheating pays handsomely, as long as you are smart enough to hire people that are smart enough to cover their tracks beyond the insightful eyes of Dr. Bik and JBC editors. As Mark Knopfler said, “look at them yo-yo’s, that’s the way you do it (!)…money for nothing and your chicks for free….”
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It’s amazing that in out current political climate we would declare that the Italians “celebrate the most inappropriate people”. Sure they’ll let you be a prime minister even though you were a pornstar but the two have nothing to do with one another. Here in the US Harvard is willing to let somebody who it appears falsifies research to continue to do so but if a woman makes an allegation THEN they’ll get rid of him. Proud times.
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Genes Cancer . 2011 Nov;2(11):1061-6. doi: 10.1177/1947601912440877.
Cellular Senescence as a Possible Mechanism for Halting Progression of Keloid Lesions
Shohreh Varmeh 1, Ainara Egia, Duncan McGrouther, Steven R Tahan, Ardeshir Bayat, Pier Paolo Pandolfi
Affiliation
1Department of Surgery, Thyroid Cancer Research Laboratory, Endocrine Surgery Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Figure 4. Much more similar than expected.
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What about NIH in all this? They are fine with him keeping the grant?
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Yes the NIH is fine with that. With such alliteration, Pier Paolo Pandolfi trips of the tongue, he has become a well known name at the best addresses. Don’t be naive and fall into the trap of thinking that the grant reviewers look at the data. Whatever next!
Budget imbalances are one way of looking the Office of Research Integrity’s limited scope.
cpdd.org/presidents-fiscal-2019-nih-budget/
” Total Fiscal 2019 Program level for National Institutes of Health is $34.767 billion”
https://compliancecosmos.org/fy-2021-budget-seeks-10-hike-ori-lays-out-new-initiatives-past-activities
“ORI’s budget has been flat at $8.558 million since 2013, when it was decreased from $9.027 million. If granted, ORI would see an increase of $856,000 for a total of $9.414 million for FY 2021.”
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Over many years, I’ve heard many worrying stories about Dr. Pandolfi’s laboratory environment. Frequently, new laboratory members struggled to recapitulate previous results. Some of these cases are well known in the community: https://elifesciences.org/articles/51019. Some are less. Once, a staff member discovered anomalies with plasmids included in a previous publication, but Dr. Pandolfi buried everything under the sand, saying those reagents were imported from a different laboratory. It was also common receiving threatening e-mails from Dr. Pandolfi. In some cases, the body of the e-mail was empty, but the title was some sort of threat or negative reference to the staff member’s project. Some threatening messages were even sent to young summer interns many months after the end of their internships because Dr. Pandolfi was paranoid about project secrecy. One year, he refused to provide compensation during maternity leave, knowing that some fellowships do not offer this type of funding. Another time, he did not pay the last few months of work after a staff member announced to have been offered a new position. The worst cases involved international fellows, who were in a weak position due to the necessity to maintain their visas. Not all staff members were able to stand against this pressure, and one of them ended up in the hospital for serious mental health issues.
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It’s not because Pandolfi was accused of harassment that he actually is guilty of it. American institutions are being irrational about this. A woman’s word can destroy a man’s career and reputation. Justice is not a matter of believing, but of proving !
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Actually, he admitted the charge. So what?
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Interesting report, although I find some statements like “Italian academia is quite corruption-ridden” vague, inappropriate and very insulting for all those Italian scientists that take their job seriously, and I believe they are the vast majority. I agree on advocating ethical behaviors, and also in reporting it would be desirable that statements as the one above would be substantiated by data (what is quite? 80% of Italian academia is corruption-ridden? 50%? 10%? 1%?).
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Dear Mario, there are even studies on nepotism in Italian academia. Your argument is: but look, there are these huge masses of honest and hard-working temporarily employed, poorly employed, under-employed and unemployed scientists in Italian academia which surely proves that Italian academic elites are not corrupt?
But then again, maybe I got the Giorgio Zauli affair wrong. Waiting for you to explain to me why this is not corruption at all.
https://forbetterscience.com/2019/08/23/ferrara-protects-rector-zauli-from-prejudiced-media-and-unqualified-public/
As for sexual harassment, or #MeTooSTEM: can it be that Italian academia even now is not really giving a f***, pardon my Italian? Never mind bullying, the Baroni don’t even seem know such thing exists.
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(please note, for full disclosure, I am a full tenured professor in Italy and my name and surname are real). My argument is that there are masses of tenured academics that have taken seriously their responsibilities and work daily to improve the system, and messages like this one do not help. I do not want to argue with your points and I appreciate the spirit of your inquiries, what is frustrating is to read easy generalisations, including the one that poorly paid and poorly employed scientists are honest, but as soon as they grow into being professors they are academic elite (or maybe they only become professors if they are corrupt). Again, I am fully on the side of those that look for the bad apples (including myself if I turn out to be one), but I disagree with this kind of generalisations and commonplaces on entire categories of people. Thanks from considering a comment from a (potential?) barone.
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“including the one that poorly paid and poorly employed scientists are honest, but as soon as they grow into being professors they are academic elite (or maybe they only become professors if they are corrupt).”
That is a typical academic argument. You postulate that every capable person trying their luck in academia will make it to professorship. That ship sailed decades ago. The faculty corruption happens because of the recruitment decisions. Like those by VIMM, and do you have an opinion on the quote by Pagano I posted as update yesterday?
But hey, I see you also refuse talking about the Zauli case, maybe because it’s not your university. I won’t ask about Alfredo Fusco then either.
What shall we make of this circus at UniBo then?
https://forbetterscience.com/2020/03/04/bologna-mice-guilty-of-research-misconduct/
Some fun fact: the affair is relatively recent, but Unibo did not have any procedure for investigating research misconduct of full professors like Ciani. Is there such a procedure in place now?
Does Unibo have a procedure for sexual harassment and bullying?
You protest generalisations, so let’s talk concrete examples.
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Ok, my apologies, I did not mean to take this into a debate where I am asked to personally comment on cases I really don’t know. I confess I am not aware and do not follow corruption cases as you do with your job, and I am probably not qualified to defend the Italian academic system as a whole (while I am obviously fully responsible for my actions and scientific outputs). Apologies for “introducing” myself here, I appreciate that these inquiries can be useful, even if someone feels offended.
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“italian academia is quite corruption-ridden”ohhhh yeahhh it makes readers souls happy!
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Just one last clarification. Staff at the University of Bologna are subject to the ethical code, which can be read here in English https://www.unibo.it/en/university/who-we-are/ethical-code-of-behaviour
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Thanks Mario. But the issue is not just having a code (which UniBo installed only in 2014), because surely also UniFe has a code hidden somewhere, maybe Zauli’s private toilet, wrapped onto a roll. The issue here is with the procedures once someone reports misconduct of some kind, which are either lacking or are not implemented because of the corruption.
This is where Italian Universities are failing again and again. It is up to faculty members like you to achieve a change. One of your UniBo colleagues, Lucio Picci, stood up to Zauli, in public. He was not killed or hurt, not even sued, so why is everyone else is either afraid or doesn’t bother?
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When people with dubious ethics continue to hold positions of power it means that it is the system that has dubious ethics, I can find no other explanation.
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A view from an Italian researcher in USA.
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The story is nicely reported and your work on it is very relevant to keep academia free of such people. Your comment on Italian academia being corruption-ridden is very unprofessional for someone who claims to be a science journalist. There are a few very recent cases of misconduct from Harvard University Professors and even some FBI investigations – you don’t call it a corruption-ridden University, right? Just because you know inside out all cases of corruption in Italian Institutions doesn’t allow you to make such a generalised and biased comment.
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I know inside out many corruption cases elsewhere, too. Including Harvard. Use search function on my site.
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https://www.ilgazzettino.it/nordest/padova/vimm_padova_dimissioni_comitato_scientifico_nomina_pandolfi_voci_molestie-5312754.html
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while I appreciate the content and purpose of your article, your claim that “Italian academia is quite corruption-ridden” and that it “often celebrates the most inappropriate people” is generic and insulting. As a professor in an Italian university, who happened to have spent 4 years at Harvard U (+ other international universities), I can assure you that, by and large, there is more “inappropriate behaviour” in some American universities than in Italian ones. I lived in both contexts, not sure about you. Having said that, I find your website quite meaningful and relevant.
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Looks like his plans fell through:
https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2020/06/30/news/il_vimm_di_padova_gli_revoca_la_nomina_il_professor_pandolfi_resta_negli_usa-260596641/
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Not all plans. DRI refuses all communication.
https://www.dri.edu/prominent-cancer-researcher-to-join-renown-institute-for-health-innovation-at-dri/
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After the news report by Dr. Alison Abbot in Nature, it’s important to consider the recent events within their historical, geographical and institutional context. In the last twenty years or so, Dr. Pandolfi has seen his influence on Italian institutions, private foundations and national media constantly on the rise. Dr. Pandolfi was given a sort on honorary professorship at University of Turin, and regularly invited within academic circles. He has been part of countless grant and conference organizing commitees by AIRC (Associazione Italiana Ricerca sul Cancro), Armenise-Harvard Foundation and Pezcoller Foundation. He was regularly featured in national newspapers like Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica.
As early as January 2020, Dr. Pandolfi has been in direct or indirect contact with tens, if not hundreds of academics in the cancer research field, both in the US and, especially, in Italy where he was planning to return, in an attempt to prepare the ground.
It’s likely that at least some affiliated of the Venetian Institute of Molecular Medicine (VIMM) and the University of Padua were aware of the reasons of Dr. Pandolfi’s departure.
From June 22 to June 26, both Dr. Luca Serrano (previous VIMM scientific director) and the entire Scientific Advisory Board resigned in contrast with Dr. Pandolfi recruitment at VIMM. The recruitment was primarily sponsored by Dr. Francesco Pagano (VIMM president) with the initial support of the University of Padua. On June 26, only local media outlets reported these news.
On Jun 27, Corriere della Sera released an interview with Dr. Pandolfi. In this interview, Dr. Pandolfi appeared to minimize his case. He claimed that academic rules on staff supervision in US are more stringent than in Italy. After these words, only Prof. Antonella Viola (University of Padua and ex VIMM scientific vice-president) had the courage to reply openly. Most of the open critics of Dr. Pandolfi’s words were not coming from the Italian biomedical community, but from abroad or other disciplines.
It’s important to evaluate Dr. Pandolfi’s management style, and his publication record. At the same time, it would be essential to question the academic/financial/media system that has allowed Dr. Pandolfi to thrive, despite his frequent dubious activities.
There are many talented scientists with strong ethical values in Italy. What can be done to support a different type of biomedical research in Italy?
(By the way, in the June 27 interview, Dr. Pandolfi is quoted while likening himself to the famous lyrical singer Placido Domingo. Some years ago, Dr. Piero Anversa enjoyed the same comparison: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/29/health/dr-piero-anversa-harvard-retraction.html)
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https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/italian-institute-revokes-appointment-of-cancer-researcher-67709
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