Jurors in Boston are weighing starkly different accounts of David Sabatini, the renowned molecular biologist who ran a lab at the Whitehead Institute. According to STAT's report on the three-week civil trial, one side portrays Sabatini as a manipulative mentor who coerced a younger colleague into sex and fostered a hostile lab culture. The other side casts him as the target of a spurned former lover and a #MeToo movement that went too far.
Testimony has included hours of conflicting accounts, bitter recriminations, and a large trove of unfiltered texts exchanged by the two scientists. The yearslong feud has opened a rare window into the insular world of elite research labs, where directors hold outsized authority.
The case also reflects a broader workplace question, the report notes: how to maintain professional boundaries within close-knit, diverse teams as behavioral standards evolve. The jury's verdict will turn on which account of the relationship and lab culture they find credible.