From Nature: MD Anderson faculty express frustration with leadership

http://blogs.nature.com/news/2013/03/md-anderson-faculty-express-frustration-with-leadership.html

MD Anderson faculty express frustration with leadership

29 Mar 2013 | 19:29 GMT | Posted by Erika Check Hayden 

"The faculty who responded to the survey appear concerned with what they perceive as an unreasonably high clinical workload, departure of leaders who have nurtured the institution, concern over DePinho’s $3 billion “Moon Shots” program, focused on eight cancers, and dissatisfaction with what one faculty member called DePinho’s “dictatorial” and “imperious” style.

Particularly troubling to the faculty have been continuing conflict-of-interest issues linked to DePinho that have drawn negative publicity to the institution.

In May, the state taxpayer-funded Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), based in Austin, said it would review a grant that it had awarded to DePinho’s wife, Lynda Chin, who had been named to lead the Institute for Applied Cancer Science, a drug discovery center created by DePinho. The grant, worth $18 million a year, had not undergone a scientific review.

Then, in June, DePinho apologized for promoting on television the stock of a company that he co-founded,without disclosing his involvement with the company.

One faculty member writes in the survey of being 'so tired of having to answer questions from other Houstonians about why MD Anderson is going downhill/always in the [Houston] Chronicle.'"