'Soap opera' sours cancer chief hunt

摘要

A bitter row between a prominent Spanish biologist and the country's science minister has spiralled into a potentially damaging leadership crisis at the country's top cancer research institute. The Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) in Madrid is trying to find a replacement for molecular oncologist Mariano Barbacid, who become the centre's founding director in 1998. But an international committee of five high-ranking scientists has now withdrawn from the process after its search for a director became caught up in the quarrel between Barbacid and the minister for science and innovation, Cristina Garmendia, who has repeatedly clashed with Spanish scientists (see 'New path for researchers').