The supervisor of the CNIO resigns and opens a brand new disaster within the largest most cancers middle in Spain | Science | EUROtoday

The largest most cancers analysis middle is unable to emerge from the immense disaster during which it has been mired for nearly two years. This Friday, the board of the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) has admitted the resignation of its managing director, José Manuel Bernabé, towards whom a grievance for an alleged case of harassment was pending.

The complainant is Laura Muñoz, who introduced her grievance in the future after the board dismissed her as basic secretary on November 25, together with two different senior officers of the CNIO for his or her alleged relationship with the alleged corrupt plot that would have stolen some 20 million euros from the CNIO’s coffers, and which the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office is investigating.

Bernabé had arrived on the CNIO in September 2025 with the goal of investigating this alleged corrupt plot, which for years would have operated within the middle and whose alleged chief could be the previous supervisor, Juan Arroyo. Bernabé was an expert extremely revered by each the CNIO workers and the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, and he devoted himself to the duty, working tirelessly, in response to sources on the middle.

Until now, Bernabé had discovered new proof of irregular contracts, and had despatched as much as 5 stories to the Prosecutor’s Office evidencing alleged contract rigging that may profit Arroyo and folks and firms round him. Laura Muñoz was a place very near Arroyo. Since 2013 she labored on the CNIO employed by Gedosol, one of many corporations allegedly associated to the irregular contracts. In February 2025 she was employed straight by the CNIO.

According to Muñoz’s grievance, printed by Abcwithin the two or so months that they coincided on the CNIO, Bernabé would have pressured her about her work schedules, and would have shared along with her movies and images of a private nature in conversations on WhatsApp, akin to pictures of him on the gymnasium and feedback about his ex-girlfriend or in regards to the variety of ladies with whom he had had relationships within the final yr. Muñoz would have introduced his transient to the CNIO’s human sources division for worry of reprisals, in response to his model.

The work that Bernabé has carried out throughout these months has worn out his well being, clarify sources from the Ministry of Science, to the purpose that he submitted his resignation originally of February. The ministry tried to maintain him in workplace given the vital work he was finishing up when investigating the irregularities dedicated in the course of the earlier stage.

This Thursday, the scientific heads of the CNIO promoted a press release in protection of Bernabé, whom they see because the sufferer of a defamation marketing campaign concocted by Arroyo’s entourage. The former supervisor was completely fired from the CNIO a couple of weeks in the past, together with Laura Muñoz and the deputy supervisor, José Ignacio Fernández Vera.

Fernández Vera resigned in 2017 as basic director of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology for “personal reasons” after EL PAÍS revealed that he spent virtually 25,000 euros in two years to lease high-end vehicles with a personal driver to go from Madrid to occasions in Salamanca, his hometown, and different locations in Spain.

“We want to show our support for the work carried out by José Manuel Bernabé to achieve transparent management of the CNIO,” reads the doc from the scientific heads, to which EL PAÍS has had entry. The new supervisor “was the first actor in helping authorities clarify the alleged criminal activities associated with the previous management team,” the manifesto continues.

CNIO researchers denounce “that the news that has appeared in recent days is part of an orchestrated smear campaign aimed at undermining the manager’s reputation.” The signatories, nevertheless, “show their rejection of any harassment situation that may occur in the work environment.”

The researchers launch a petition to the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, led by Diana Morant: “We ask the ministry that the new management be independent of the initial team and continue working to clarify possible irregularities or corruption of the internal team. We are deeply affected by the drift of this case.”

The textual content has been signed by greater than 180 staff and virtually the entire middle’s chief researchers, 47 (greater than 90%), with some exceptions, CNIO sources report. Among the absences is Mariano Barbacid, who directed the CNIO from its basis till 2011, and who has all the time maintained an excellent working relationship and a private friendship with former supervisor Juan Arroyo.

Just a few weeks in the past, Barbacid turned the topic of controversy after saying that it had cured pancreatic most cancers in mice because of a brand new remedy with three molecules. The discovery was an advance within the discipline of primary analysis, however its scope was exaggerated, giving false hope to sufferers. More than 100 sufferers wrote messages to these chargeable for the analysis to be handled. Some even went on to the CNIO, the place scientists have been pressured to inform them that there isn’t a trial underway but and that there was nothing they might do for them. Following the announcement, a personal marketing campaign by the Cris Cancer Foundation, which funds Barbacid’s work, has raised greater than 3.5 million euros to finance the scientist’s analysis. The Foundation can also be one of many non-public trustees of the CNIO, with voice and vote in its highest governing physique. Another on-line marketing campaign already has virtually 90,000 signatures asking that Barbacid be awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

This Friday at midday, the CSIF and UGT unions have referred to as a rally on the doorways of the CNIO at 1:00 p.m. “Enough of the culture of fear,” says the decision to all the middle’s staff, and provides: “We want to take one more step, we want to encourage you to go out to the door of the CNIO and say, together, that we are not afraid. We are scientists. We are professionals.” “The new management has worked since its arrival to open drawers, collaborate with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and revive the center. And we want this to continue. We cannot allow ourselves to take a step back. We want what needs to be cleaned to be cleaned and for the CNIO to be in the news only for our scientific discoveries,” reads the decision.

“In this center, when someone opens their mouth, there is automatic discredit,” Ana Isabel Hernández, a CNIO researcher and member of the works committee, explains to this newspaper. The labor consultant explains that at present there are nonetheless a number of senior positions within the CNIO from the earlier stage, and that “something new cannot be started without changing the entire management team.” Hernández sends a direct message to the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities: “We do not want a step back. We do not want to return again to the same situation we had. Who are they going to put as manager? In what situation? Are you going to continue collaborating with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office? Or are we all going to have to continue under the culture of fear? This is how we live,” he denounces. The investigator, who reported alleged rigged contracts in 2018, assures that she was collaborating within the investigation with Bernabé, particularly in sending data to the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit of the Police (UDEF) and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.

The CNIO has develop into a political hornet’s nest. Sources from the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities consider that they’ve set “the perfect trap” for Bernabé. When the supervisor confirmed to senior ministry officers the veracity of the messages for which he was accused, there was no turning again potential, because the Government has as its customary a coverage of zero tolerance for circumstances of harassment.

This Friday, the Minister of Science Diana Morant, who can also be basic secretary of the Valencian socialists and candidate to preside over that neighborhood, needed to be implacable. José Manuel Bernabé “has to leave his position” because of “reprehensible” conduct that has led to a case of alleged harassment, Morant defined to the press, in response to Efe. The messages reported towards Bernabé “do not fit into the work exercise between a manager and a subordinate,” he added.

The dismissal of Bernabé as soon as once more distances the opportunity of the CNIO rising from the deep disaster it’s going via. He was alleged to be one of many champions of the brand new stage, during which the principle goal was to get well the status and high quality of this flagship of scientific analysis, which has been affected in recent times by the battle between factions and by the abandonment of key infrastructures, together with confocal microscopes and the animal facility. Also pending is the affirmation of the Madrid bioinformatician Raúl Rabadán as the brand new scientific director of the CNIO. Rabadán is a star signing who arrives from Columbia University, within the United States, however he had not but been in a position to signal his new place resulting from commitments with the American college. His affirmation is anticipated in May.