A top-ranking scientist at the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Lawrence Tabak, was forced to retire this week, multiple people familiar with the move say, marking the highest-profile departure of a health official under the Trump administration so far this year.
Tabak’s retirement, which he told colleagues was effective Tuesday, ends a decades-long tenure serving at the federal medical research agency, including multiple years as the acting director of the NIH during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also served as the agency’s top ethics official.
An email circulated among NIH staff from Tabak did not explain why he was abruptly stepping down, which multiple people familiar with the decision said came earlier than he was planning. One person said he did not plan to retire until at least the fall.
Tabak told one federal researcher that he said he “found it necessary to retire today from federal service.” A former colleague said Tabak, who should have been the second-in-command at the agency, had been excluded from key meetings.
Tabak and spokespeople for the National Institutes of Health did not immediately return requests for comment.
“He has helped shape important policy decisions at NIH over four administrations. He has guided NIH through complex issues and will be sorely missed,” acting NIH Director Dr. Matthew Memoli said in an email Wednesday afternoon to NIH staff announcing the retirement.
/ Getty Images
The departure follows years of intense scrutiny of Tabak from Republican lawmakers at multiple congressional hearings, when he faced questioning over issues like the agency’s oversight of “gain-of-function” research on viruses, which can make them more dangerous and is supposed to be tightly controlled, as well as grants to the EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Under the Biden administration, the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services found in a review of grants dating back to 2014 that the NIH missed opportunities to avoid paying for $89,171 in costs to the groups that should not have been allowed, like vague employee bonuses. It also faulted the NIH for not doing more to ensure its funds did not go towards gain-of-function research.
Tabak’s retirement also comes amid ongoing court battles over a decision last week to make steep cuts to the amount of money for facilities and administration costs that the federal government has agreed to pay for in medical research.
A federal judge has for now temporarily blocked those cuts nationwide, pending further arguments in lawsuits brought by medical colleges, universities and state attorneys general.
Several scientists have come out to praise Tabak, who was often tasked as the agency’s principal deputy director to handle difficult problems at the NIH.
“Larry was brilliant at deflecting credit away from himself in order to raise up colleagues, mentees, and those who might otherwise have lacked a voice,” posted Carrie Wolinetz, a former senior adviser to the NIH director.
In addition to his administrative duties, Tabak also continued to lead a team within the NIH publishing biochemistry research.
Jordan Lara, a research fellow in Tabak’s lab at the NIH, praised him for having “always made time” for mentorship and scientific research.
“He would work 80 hours a week regularly with no days off. He truly gave himself up for the American public. it’s absolutely insane to have him cast out like this and to paint him as anything other than a dedicated public servant,” said Lara in a message.
