The University of California at San Diego filed a lawsuit against the University of Southern California regarding the way UCSD's prominent Alzheimer's disease researcher "was recruited to USC," Inside Higher Ed reported.
The lawsuit, which was filed in San Diego County Superior Court, focuses on Paul Aisen, who with eight colleagues left UCSD to work for USC, according to Inside Higher Ed. The university accuses its nine former employees and USC of planning to steal its federal funding, research data and other assets, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Aisen, who left UCSD last month for a new Alzheimer's institute established by USC, and brought eight staffers with him, has won very large grants for his research while at UCSD for a study he was working on. The university said the grant and the research performed before he resigned was recruited to USC belongs to UCSD.
According to the lawsuit, "while Aisen and some of his colleagues were still employed by UC, they conspired to transfer the study from UC San Diego to USC and made false or misleading statements to the Alzheimer's study employees to get them to move to the new USC institute," The Times reported.
The National Institute of Aging confirmed that its five-year grant of up to $55 million belonged to the UCSD, not Aisen or USC.
USC school officials deny any wrongdoing.
"We are surprised and disappointed that the University of California San Diego elected to sue its departing faculty member and his team, as well as USC, rather than manage this transition collaboratively, as is the well-accepted custom and practice in academia," USC said in a statement.
