Here is an investigative story by Peoria journalist Clare Howard:
PEORIA --Professor Jasti Rao, Ph.D., a key figure in the development of the cancer research center at University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria, left abruptly just 15 months after the $13 million center opened. His departure is part of an ongoing investigation, documents say.
One component of a request filed last month under the Freedom of Information Act for correspondence and documentation between Rao and the University of Illinois administration regarding finances was declined because disclosure would “interfere with active administrative enforcement proceedings.”
Rao’s resignation letter cited health as the reason for his departure.
Dave Haney, director of strategic communications at the medical school, said “Dr. Jasti Rao is no longer employed at University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria. I have no further comment.”
Rao was also a director of a pharmaceutical company in India, Natco Pharma Limited. A company website, updated in May, states Rao resigned his board post due to “personal preoccupations.”
Rao, 62, was earning $695,950 a year as a tenured professor at the medical college, and was senior associate dean for research and head of the department of biology and pharmacology when he resigned in March. By 2011, he had received almost $30 million in research grants from the National Institutes of Health over the course of his career, more than any other brain cancer researcher in the country, according to a Peoria Journal Star article.
A native of India, he had been recruited to Peoria in 2001 from University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. His international reputation was credited with securing funds for the new cancer research center at the Peoria medical school. The center opened in December 2011.
State Rep. Dave Leitch, R-Peoria, had worked to secure funding to build the cancer research center and expressed shock and disappointment when Rao resigned abruptly. Leitch said he is unaware of an ongoing investigation into Rao’s departure.
“There are a lot of unanswered questions,” he said.
State Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, said, “I’m not aware of an ongoing investigation and I hope it is done quickly and fully disclosed to the public. Public funds were used to build the center and conduct research and the public has a right to know.”
No response was received to requests for comment from Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin or the National Institutes of Health.
A search is underway to replace Rao. In the meantime, Dr. Sara Rusch, regional dean, and Stephen Lasley, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and assistant head of cancer biology and pharmacology, are taking on additional responsibilities at the cancer research center.
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