The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center—a $10 billion institution entrusted with billions in NIH grants and the mission to "Make Cancer History"—is now the subject of a formal complaint to the University of Texas System Board of Regents.
A coalition of current and former employees alleges that Dr. Padmanee Sharma, Professor of Genitourinary Medical Oncology and spouse of Nobel laureate Dr. James Allison, has presided over years of unchecked harassment, research misconduct, and retaliation. These acts have been shielded by the prestige of the Allison-Sharma name and a complicit HR apparatus at MD Anderson. Staff suffered panic attacks, emergency-room visits, and career destruction. When Nurse Practitioner Kevin Lagman faced sustained verbal assault, MD Anderson police were called to intervene. When junior researcher Dr. Jamie Lin refused to surrender authorship credit on her own manuscript, she endured an alleged 18-month retaliation campaign—false plagiarism accusations, NIH manuscripts placed on hold, and three obstructed publications.
Regrettably, the Office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has aligned itself with Dr. Padmanee Sharma rather than the victims.
An independent expert from the HHS Office of Research Integrity found no basis for the plagiarism claims. Over 50 formal HR complaints were filed between 2019 and 2023 — with zero documented disciplinary action — as reported by the Daily Mail and the Houston Chronicle (February 9 and February 16, 2024).
Source material included in the formal submission appendices.
"Over 50 formal complaints were filed between 2019 and 2023 — with no documented disciplinary action taken."
This report is being submitted now — and the consequences of inaction are immediate. MD Anderson recorded a $43 million operating loss in fiscal year 2024. The former Chair of Genitourinary Oncology reportedly resigned citing "financial malfeasance" within the Immunotherapy Platform. The lab at the center of these allegations received over $15 million in NIH grants between 2020 and 2024, while the misconduct it is accused of went uninvestigated and unaddressed. Public funds are actively at risk. Beyond finances, the suppression of peer-reviewed research — blocked patient samples, held manuscripts, obstructed publications — is not a historical grievance. It is an ongoing failure with direct consequences for cancer patients whose treatment options depend on the science being delayed. The University of Texas System Board of Regents has both the authority and the obligation to act. Every day this submission goes unaddressed is another day institutional misconduct operates without consequence at a federally funded research center that answers to no one.
Source material included in the formal submission appendices.