The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center — a $10 billion institution entrusted with billions in NIH grants and a mission to "Make Cancer History" — now stands at the center of a formal congressional complaint. A coalition of current and former employees alleges that Dr. Padmanee Sharma, professor of Genitourinary Medical Oncology and wife of Nobel laureate Dr. James Allison, has presided over years of unchecked harassment, research misconduct, and retaliation, shielded by the prestige of the Allison-Sharma name and a complicit HR apparatus. Staff members suffered panic attacks, emergency room visits, and career destruction. When nurse practitioner Kevin Lagman was subjected to a 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 faced an alleged 18-month retaliation campaign — false plagiarism accusations, NIH manuscripts placed on hold, and three obstructed publications. 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 covered by the Daily Mail and the Houston Chronicle (February 9 and February 16, 2024).
Source material included in the congressional appendices.
"Over 50 formal complaints were filed between 2019 and 2023 — with no documented disciplinary action taken."
The damage extends far beyond individual careers. 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; and the lab at the center of the allegations received over $15 million in NIH grants between 2020 and 2024, raising serious questions about conflicts of interest in federal funding decisions. Most critically, the alleged obstruction of peer-reviewed research — blocking consented patient samples, suppressing manuscripts, prioritizing one lab's therapies over collaborative science — has measurably slowed discoveries that could alter outcomes for cancer patients worldwide. Submitted to Congress on September 29, 2025, the report calls on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Senate HELP Committee to convene a hearing within 90 days, mandate an independent audit of MD Anderson's leadership and financial practices, and establish federal whistleblower protections for employees at NIH-funded institutions.
Source material included in the congressional appendices.