The Sanger Scandal

Last updated: 12 February 2023

This article tells the story of 12 brave whistleblowers who challenged the management team at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, a world leader in genome research that aims to deliver new insights into human and pathogen biology to change the course of biology and medicine. The Sanger Institute is as an ‘ideas factory’, driven by a collective of imaginative scientists with a shared commitment and who work alongside each other, with a particular scientific culture, intellectual critical mass, and technical, IT and analytic support to develop and follow bold ideas in a agile manner (1). I think that the 12 whistleblower whose lives were and/or continue to be shattered by what they endured in their quest for justice would not agree with the Sanger Institutes bold scientific culture claims made above unless 'particular scientific culture = bullying, discrimination and poor research integrity is acceptable'.

How much did the whistleblowers had to invest to challenge the system?

How is the Sanger Scandal positioned within the UK landscape of Research Culture Scandals?

What are some of the key headlines around the Wellcome Sanger Institute?

What are some of the remaining questions?

1. 9 May 2020 Someone should investigate loss of millions in funds due to a commercial contract with UK Biobank that ended up costing Sanger far more than it quoted. Many of us warned about the high risk associated with this. Where were the losses made up from? Research monies? https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1259020487780425728?s=20?
2. 9 May 2020 Also, millions were repurposed after many faculty who wrote the scientific grant for the previous 5 yrs were forced to leave mid-quinquennium. Who was this funding ultimately allocated to- was it re-allocated to the very people who were involved in these dismissals? https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1259021246710382592?s=20?
3. 9 May 2020 Also, what happened to the $2.2 million that was spent on African arrays manufactured unethically & unlawfully? Were they ever used? https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1259021769362604032?s=20?
4. 9 May 2020 How does the scientific output of Sanger & quality of research compare to other the funding it receives? Are the ideas of current faculty left competitive externally? How does the output compare to what was written in the last 5yr plan, given many faculty who wrote this have left? https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1259023083144384512?s=20?
5. 9 May 2020 How does the output of Sanger compare to that of the Broad in terms of output by funds received? (rhetorical question - everyone knows the answer to this one) https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1259023373964922880?s=20?
6. 9 May 2020 How many large-scale genomics projects is the Sanger doing (in terms of actual collection of samples and data)? What is the footprint of Sanger on global research? https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1259023910584160257?s=20?
7. 9 May 2020 How much of Sanger research actually occurs de novo- recruitment of participants into studies? And how much is opportunistically sequencing other people's samples, just because they have largely unlimited funds disbursed without much scrutiny? https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1259024108559491074?s=20?
8. 9 May 2020 What about the property investment on GRL campus, for 1500 houses for 'campus staff'? Is this a campus investment, or a property investment by Wellcome, hoping to make hundreds of millions through this? https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1259024752326443008?s=20?
9. 9 May 2020 Was the Wellcome conflicted in its investigation of the COO who leads the property development? And the former head of legal who also played a prominent role in getting approvals for this at that point? https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1259024966751784960?s=20?
10. 9 May 2020 Many Sanger faculty are involved in Sanger spin outs? Have Sanger core resources been used & diverted to support spin outs the director was involved in? Have products from a spin out been licensed back to any of the PIs groups which may have personally benefited them? https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1259028124848840704?s=20?

How does the Wellcome Trust fund the Wellcome Sanger Institute in comparison to other UK-based institutions it funds?

Who are the management behind the Sanger Scandal?

See https://twitter.com/BRAINCURES/status/1244344111219572741?s=20?for:

Why scientist and research funder have the duty to speak up to positively ReImagine Research Culture?

What is the story from the beginning?

What did the Whistleblowing Investigation report that took nearly 6 months to produce report?

See https://twitter.com/SerenaNikZainal/status/1060616211019558912?s=20

What did the whistleblowers, the investigator and the Sanger Institute management have to say about Thomas Kibling's whistleblowing investigation report?

What are the outstanding questions/issues that the Wellcome Trust Board of Governors needs to address as Jeremy Farrar fails to comment on the twitter campaing for truth?

How have other similar research charities handled Research Integrity Issues similar to those that were experienced by the Sanger Scandal whistleblowers?

What other surprising things have happened at the Sanger Institute since the Whistleblowers challenged Thomas Kibling's whistleblowing report?

Athena SWAN Bronze to Silver Award upgrade, despite clear EDI issues voiced by unresolved Whistleblower complainst.

Closing down of a multi-million world-leading animal facility, 1.2 billion expansion plan, IP commercialization issues, David Willetts Out - Jeremy Farrar In as Chair of the Sanger Institute.

Commercialisation/IP issues

Can you believe that Jeremy Farrar will now be Director of Wellcome Trust and the Chair of the Board of the Wellcome owned Sanger Institute, despite not deciding to have a non-scam investigation into the whistleblower dissatisfaction with the original Sanger Institute commissioned 'independent investigation'?

References

1. Wellcome Sanger Institute - Genomics Research Institute in Cambridge
2. Result of independent investigation into whistleblowing allegations released (sanger.ac.uk)
3. Allegations of commercialisation at Sanger | Interviews | Naked Scientists (thenakedscientists.com)
4. Science Magazine - November 1, 2019 - Genetics lab accused of misusing African DNA (sciencemagazinedigital.org)
5. World-leading research campus to triple in size - but not everyone is happy about it - Cambridgeshire Live (cambridge-news.co.uk)