Renowned cancer researcher Professor David Sabatini has identified the warning sign he wishes he had recognized before a former romantic partner accused him of sexual misconduct—claims a jury later found defamatory.
Sabatini told Our News Outlet this week that Kristin Knouse, whom he successfully sued for defamation, routinely spoke harshly about people in her life when they were not present.
Speaking from his new laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Sabatini said: “If I had to choose one red flag, it would be that she criticized almost everyone—from her students and friends to faculty members, people in my lab, her mentor and even her parents.”
“I realize now that when someone behaves that way, they may eventually turn on you too.
“I thought we were friends, and we had candid conversations.
“I criticized people as well. It is normal to discuss others with someone you trust. But looking back, the extent of her criticism was far greater than I understood at the time.
“Her responses to other people’s actions were extremely intense, and I failed to recognize what that meant.”
David Sabatini spoke with Our News Outlet at his Cambridge, Massachusetts, laboratory on Tuesday. He discussed the allegations from a former colleague that he says destroyed his career
Kristin Knouse shared images on social media portraying a quiet, straightforward life. Sabatini says she was privately planning to damage his reputation after he ended their casual relationship to pursue another partner
Sabatini, 58, also said Knouse, 38, told him that other faculty members had sexually harassed her.
“I should have considered that more carefully,” he said. “That was another warning sign. You do not make claims like that lightly.”
In hindsight, Sabatini said, Knouse’s intensely critical behavior unsettles him enough that he intends to caution his teenage son about the trait when assessing potential partners.
Our News Outlet has contacted Knouse and her attorneys for comment.
Sabatini’s career began to unravel after he started seeing Knouse in 2018, when he was a cell biology professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.
Knouse was then a research assistant and now leads her own laboratory at MIT. Sabatini had received at least 10 international awards for his cancer research and appeared to be on a path toward possible Nobel Prize recognition.
A photograph of Kristin Knouse and Professor David Sabatini contrasts with the later trial, in which jurors found that she defamed him by portraying their consensual relationship as coercive and inappropriate
Knouse was found liable for defaming Sabatini and ordered to pay $6 million plus interest. The total debt has since risen to nearly $10 million
The pair began a casual relationship that both initially characterized as consensual. It ended in January 2020, when Sabatini told Knouse he intended to pursue a serious relationship with a former partner.
In October 2020, Knouse reported Sabatini to the Whitehead Institute for sexual harassment. MIT leaders opened a formal investigation five months later.
Sabatini was pushed out of the Whitehead Institute in August 2021, shortly after an investigation concluded that he had violated rules governing workplace relationships.
He filed a defamation lawsuit against Knouse in 2021 and left MIT entirely in April 2022, after the university’s board recommended revoking his tenure—a step that could have enabled the institution to dismiss him.
His legal battle ended last month, when a jury ruled in his favor nearly five years after the case was filed.
Evidence presented at trial challenged Knouse’s accounts that she had been raped, sexually assaulted or pressured into having sex with Sabatini.
The exhibits instead included messages in which she reportedly discussed an interest in “hard” sex, acknowledged aggressively pursuing sex with him and joked about gang rape.
Kristin Knouse is pictured in Boston on Monday. A jury found that she defamed her former colleague and ordered her to pay damages that have now reached about $10 million; she continues to dispute the ruling
When approached by Our News Outlet at MIT on Monday, Knouse made further allegations against Professor David Sabatini
Jurors also heard that Knouse sent messages to associates describing an alleged effort to undermine Sabatini as “Covert Operation De-throne.”
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After reviewing more than 1,000 text messages and other evidence, jurors found for Sabatini on every count and awarded him $6 million in damages.
Our News Outlet has learned that interest is adding more than $3,100 a day to the award, bringing Knouse’s liability to roughly $10 million and continuing to grow.
Knouse is appealing the verdict, although legal experts have said overturning it may be difficult.
Under the judgment, she could be required to surrender 15 percent of each paycheck toward the damages. Given the size of the award and the accumulating interest, that amount would make only limited progress even over the course of her working life.
Boston trial attorney Kurt S. Kusiak, who was not involved in the case, told Our News Outlet that the court will assess Knouse’s assets and decide which may legally be used to satisfy the judgment.
That review could include money or property inherited from her father, who died two weeks before the verdict. Sabatini’s lawyers have asked the court to bar Knouse from transferring, selling or otherwise disposing of the inheritance.
Kusiak said inherited funds “can definitely be part of damages.” He also cited possible claims against second homes and wage garnishment, under which a court could direct part of Knouse’s monthly salary to Sabatini.
A job listing for an assistant professor in her department places her estimated annual salary between $143,200 and $177,000.
Knouse continues to work at MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
Sabatini spoke with Our News Outlet at his recently opened, smaller laboratory at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry in Cambridge, Massachusetts
However, Kusiak said Knouse’s $623,700 one-bedroom Boston condominium may be protected under Massachusetts’ Homestead Act, which generally shields a primary residence from certain debt claims.
Unless Knouse has $10 million in accessible funds, the attorney said, she is unlikely ever to repay the judgment in full.
“Generally speaking, when a verdict is this large, you do not expect to collect every dollar,” Kusiak said.
Sabatini told Our News Outlet that he lost 40 pounds during the scandal, became afraid to appear in public and watched as his son was ostracized at school.
“I could not walk through Cambridge without people recognizing me,” he said. “I would sit in the corner of coffee shops and try to stay out of sight. It was awful—a terrible stain.”
Even after the ordeal, Sabatini said he does not wish Knouse harm.
He argued, however, that the fallout delayed research into diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s, areas his team had been studying before his removal.
“We had 39 people working on everything from basic questions about how cells detect amino acids to Alzheimer’s disease, ovarian cancer and lung conditions,” he said.
“Most of that work was destroyed—nearly all of it. Some projects moved to other laboratories, and some researchers took work elsewhere, but much of it disappeared. Reagents, protocols—everything was lost.
“Many people were seriously affected. Some of the scientists who worked with me may have suffered damage they will never fully recover from.”
After the Sabatini Laboratory at MIT closed, he accepted a position at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, which operates laboratories in Prague and Cambridge.
His new facility is considerably smaller than the one he led at the Whitehead Institute. It does not have animal-testing capabilities and has access to less advanced equipment.
MIT leaders have not acted on calls for Sabatini to be rehired, despite increasing criticism of the way his case was handled.
Knouse remains at the university, where she is an assistant professor at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.
When approached by Our News Outlet earlier this week, Knouse rejected the verdict and made new allegations against Sabatini.
She said she had become “the target of a massive smear campaign” and had received death threats. Referring to Sabatini, she added: “He sent a mob after me.”
Sabatini denied the accusation in an interview with Our News Outlet the following day. He said he was sorry to hear that Knouse had received threats and urged people not to harass or target her.
