Matta alleges that after working for 40 years at Roswell Park, in the process bringing in millions of dollars of research grants, he was told his job was being eliminated and he was later stripped of all access to laboratories at the institute.
Michel B. Sexton, Roswell Park's general counsel and chief operations officer, told the newspaper that in his opinion Matta had retired.
"My understanding is the research he had done was over," he told the Buffalo News. "He didn't have any more grants. His position was going to be eliminated."
Matta, however, alleges that patents and grants Pandey and Dougherty obtained are based partly on work he (Matta) did in his chemistry lab and on his ideas.
The work focused on carbohydrate chains and their ability to bind to cancer cells, making it easier to identify tumors. The research could lead to more efficient cancer drugs.
Roswell Park and the two scientists have denied all the charges. Pandey and Dougherty said in court testimony that while they discussed scientific theories while working with Matta, patents and grants they submitted were based solely on their own work.
Sexton pointed out that Matta has filed complaints for five years. "His complaints have been refuted by two different committees here. The people he names (Pandey and Dougherty) are top-line scientists. They wouldn't leave him off if they thought he deserved to be on it."
The case is now in settlement talks, the Buffalo News reported. A spokesperson for Roswell Park told India-West that the institute had "no comment," because the case is currently in litigation.
Matta also sued Photolitec, a Roswell Park spin-off research company that Pandey heads. Photolitec, which is backed by a Chinese pharmaceutical firm, is commercializing the scientific research that Matta helped develop, he alleges. Because of (Pandey's and Dougherty's) actions, "Matta's lab lost grant funding and research opportunities and the opportunity to participate in Photolitec, culminating in the dismissal of Matta from Roswell," court papers quoted by the Buffalo News said. Matta's attorney, Henry J. Cittone of the New York City law firm of Cittone & Lindenbaum, did not return a call from India-West for comment.
"Money is not everything," Matta, 70, told the News. "They never gave me any credit. They published papers without including that the concept originated in (my) lab. I have been betrayed."
Matta came to the U.S. in 1968 to attend the University at Buffalo, where he did post-graduate work focusing on carbohydrate chemistry. He joined Roswell Park in 1971.
"His scientific work is well-regarded," Joel Huberman, a retired Roswell Park scientist, told the Buffalo News. "He was steadily receiving grants from NIH (the National Institutes of Health), and you don't receive money from NIH unless it's good research."
Matta said he received word his job was being eliminated about the time he found out he had won the 2011 American Chemical Society's Carbohydrate Division's Melville L. Wolfrom Award, given annually to a scientist in the carbohydrate field for a lifetime of work. Matta said he decided to retire and collect his pension. The Indian American researcher said he was given emeritus status, allowing him to remain in his lab, without pay, doing research through the end of the year. But in June, Matta said, he received a letter from the institute stating Rowell Park wouldn't allow him to submit any more grant applications and he was to leave his lab by the end of the year.
Sexton told the News that it is unusual for Roswell Park to support grants for researchers who are not on Roswell Park's payroll, such as those with emeritus status. Roswell Park also doesn't give severance payments to retirees, Sexton added.
Pandey, a professor and a member of the cellular stress biology department at Roswell Park, Nov. 1 received the 2011 Jacob F. Schoellkopf Medal from the Western New York chapter of the American Chemical Society. He has been a top researcher in the field of photodynamic therapy, developing more effective photo sensitizers used for both imaging and treatment.
Pandey has a Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry from the University of Rajasthan and was awarded junior and senior research fellowships from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and the Indian Council of Medical Research.