MD Anderson Cancer Centre ousts 3 scientists over alleged links to Chinese espionage
- MD Anderson Cancer Centre was notified by the National Institutes of Health that five faculty members had conflicts of interest and unreported foreign income
- Some Chinese Americans say the crackdown amounts to racial profiling and that it hinders groundbreaking research
A prominent cancer centre in Houston has ousted three of five scientists whom federal authorities identified as being involved in Chinese efforts to steal American research.
Peter Pisters, the president of the MD Anderson Cancer Centre, told The Houston Chronicle that the National Institutes of Health wrote to the cancer centre last year detailing conflicts of interest and unreported foreign income by five faculty members, and gave it 30 days to respond.
“As stewards of taxpayer dollars invested in biomedical research, we have an obligation to follow up,” Pisters said.
MD Anderson received US$148 million in NIH grants last year.
The centre provided internal documents to The Chronicle regarding the cases but the names of the scientists were redacted.
The newspaper said all three are ethnically Chinese.