Sabatini Verdict Causes Repercussions Across Academia

11/10/2026

The $6 million jury verdict obtained last month by Arrowood LLP on behalf of Dr. David Sabatini in his defamation case against a younger colleague who falsely accused him of sexual harassment continues to reverberate, prompting 50 scientists across academia to demand that MIT reconsider Sabatini’s termination.

Dr. Sabatini, former MIT professor, member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and principal investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), was involved in a consensual sexual relationship with Kristin Knouse, a fellow at Whitehead. When Sabatini wanted to end the relationship, Knouse accused him of sexual harassment and assault. She complained to the director of the Whitehead, who began an outside investigation which ultimately led to Whitehead’s decision to terminate Sabatini.

After Sabatini resigned from Whitehead, was terminated by HHMI and placed on leave by MIT, Knouse continued to defame him. Sabatini’s consulting and advisory positions ended almost overnight, an offer for a position at NYU evaporated amid protests, and he became a pariah in the scientific community.

In the wake of the jury verdict vindicating Dr. Sabatini, The Boston Globe reported that 50 prominent members of the scientific community, hailing from 33 academic and scientific institutions, wrote a letter to MIT administrators lobbying them to reconsider their decision, saying that Sabatini’s departure from the university “carried a level of unfairness that did not meet basic standards all institutions should afford their faculty.”

According to The Boston Globe, “in their letter to MIT, the scientists said the trial presented new evidence that brought them to question the merits of MIT’s recommendation to revoke [Dr. Sabatini’s] tenure.”

Commenting on the institution’s rush to judgement in terminating Sabatini, Lisa G. Arrowood, member of Sabatini’s trial team, told Fox News, “This verdict should send universities the message that all the facts and documents from both sides need to be obtained and analyzed before deciding to fire someone. The investigators and the Whitehead Institute allowed one party and her lawyers to control what evidence they received and even what they could show to Dr. Sabatini. Had the full picture been shown to the institution and to the investigators, we believe the outcome would have been different.”

Explore more coverage about scientists petitioning MIT to reinstate Dr. Sabatini’s tenure:

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