This sabotage story is the stuff of research nightmares.

[n2doc]

Sad story in this week's Science, about a scientist suing her mentor and Yale for their lackluster response to her being sabotaged. From the article:

Koziol's studies of how the genome switches on after an egg is fertilized had begun failing mysteriously in July 2011, a month after she started her postdoc in the developmental biology lab of Antonio Giraldez. In August, she began producing transgenic zebrafish; they all died, not once, but time after time. A lab technician assured her she was doing everything right, and colleagues' fish were fine. So Koziol produced a new batch of fish and divided them in two groups. One she put in a container labeled with her initials, MK, as she had done before. She left the other half unmarked. Sure enough, the labeled fish died; the others were fine.

The experiment was a key step in proving that someone was tampering with her experiments, according to a lawsuit Koziol filed with the Superior Court in New Haven on 7 February. When hidden cameras were installed in the lab, they revealed a fellow postdoc poisoning her fish, the complaint says. Now, Koziol is suing the alleged perpetrator, Polloneal Jymmiel Ocbina. According to the complaint, he left Yale after he was caught on video.

Ugh. Labmates are supposed to be your colleagues...people you turn to for advice, learn new techniques from, discuss career options with. If you don't get along with them, then fine, talk it out or avoid them. But don't freaking resort to sabotage. When I hear about conflict/competition between labmates happening, it's usually cause of an unfriendly environment perpetuated by the lab head. From her complaint, it sounds like this case may not be any different:

From then on, Koziol's relationship with her boss deteriorated. The complaint says he refused to provide her with a letter about the sabotage, which presumably would have helped explain her lack of data to future employers. Koziol alleges that he criticized her work and character, didn't help her make up for the lost time, gave her "angry looks when passing in the lab," didn't list her as a contributor to a Nature article, and threatened to fire and "destroy" her. Koziol became depressed, suffered from sleeplessness, and gained weight; when she and Giraldez talked for 3 hours in August 2012, Koziol "cried throughout the meeting," the complaint says.

more

http://observationdeck.io9.com/holy-shit-this-sabotage-story-is-the-stuff-of-researc-1538150751

[progressoid]

1. And last month, "Yale Puts Controversial Military Project On Hold"

(Updated 7:28 p.m.) After an outcry from campus groups and New Haven immigration activists, Yale announced Thursday night that it will put on temporary hold plans to launch a Department of Defense-backed research center that would rely on local immigrants as military test subjects.

Yale School of Medicine Dean Robert J. Alpern released the following statement:

“Members of the Yale and New Haven communities have raised concerns about a possible center for operational neuroscience that was reported in the press. In light of the issues raised, we are not moving forward on any such center until we have fully investigated all these issues.

“It is a very important value of both the Yale School of Medicine and the broader University that all research participants, including all members of the New Haven community, are given the highest respect and protected from any unethical treatment.”

...

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/immigrant_advocates_to_yale_were_not_lab_rats/

[AuntPatsy]

2. I agree, hope she prevails...

[Warpy]

3. A misogynist labmate at a university that only grudgingly admitted women

in the 70s, what a combination.

I, too, hope she prevails. The video will help. All she has to do is chase down that rat bastard Ocbina. I hope she costs her ex boss enough money that he'll be less inclined to assassinate the characters of other women.