MIT President Sally Kornbluth responded Wednesday to a Globe report detailing her time as an administrator at Duke amid a cancer research scandal more than a decade ago, saying she learned lessons from the case that “have powerfully shaped my approach to leadership ever since.”
In a letter to the MIT faculty, Kornbluth said she described the case to MIT’s search committee before she was selected as the institute’s new president in 2022.
The Globe’s story, which published online Wednesday morning, said Kornbluth was the dean overseeing clinical research at Duke Medical School when researchers raised concerns about the work of Dr. Anil Potti, who claimed to have created algorithms that could analyze tumors and pick the best chemotherapy cocktail to treat cancer patients.
Potti’s work led to clinical trials that began enrolling patients in 2007. A federal investigation later revealed that Potti had been manipulating data. Critics said some leaders at Duke, including Kornbluth, were slow to shut down the trials after other researchers raised serious concerns.
Patients and their loved ones sued, and Duke settled in 2015 for an undisclosed sum.
In her letter on Wednesday, Kornbluth said she was “new to university administration” at the time.
“One formative lesson was the vital importance of establishing and following rigorous and timely internal investigative processes and ensuring that they are entirely independent from those who undertook the work,” she said.
Kornbluth said the case “led to concrete improvements in Duke’s research infrastructure.”
“As you all know, more broadly, over the past decade the scientific community has continued to sharpen its focus on detecting and addressing fraud through improved policies, processes, and technology,” she said.
In the aftermath of the Potti scandal, Kornbluth was a target of fierce criticism, including from scientists inside Duke who felt that she downplayed the warning signs about Potti and prioritized Duke’s interests over those of its patients — charges Kornbluth has always denied.
Kornbluth and other former Duke leaders have contended they were duped by a con man who knew how to exploit their trust.
“Unfortunately, as described in the article, fabrication and falsification can be difficult to detect when an individual is intent on deception,” Kornbluth said in her letter.
Kornbluth invited MIT faculty to email her directly with any questions about the report and her time at Duke.
“As this all reinforces, our work depends on our being able to trust our tools, trust our data and trust each other — and to verify that trust,” she said. “It’s crucial that we continue to foster a culture in which everyone, regardless of their position, feels empowered to raise concerns and knows they will be taken seriously.”
Nick Stoico can be reached at nick.stoico@globe.com.