The rector of a prominent Austrian medical university has been fired in the midst of a scientific misconduct investigation that has plagued the institution for months.

The Medical University of Innsbruck's seven-person council unceremoniously dumped Clemens Sorg, an immunologist and the rector of the university, from his position on August 21, according to a report in Nature.

Last November, Sorg raised the alarm on university urologists who were testing a stem cell therapy that used patients' own cells to treat urinary incontinence. Earlier this month, those researchers - who included Hannes Strasser, the study's lead author - were accused, in a report from Austria's Agency for Health and Food Safety, of failing to randomize study participants adequately, designing the trial poorly, proceeding with the study despite a lack of appropriate ethical clearance, and inadequately informing study participants of the nature of the experiment.

The study was published last year in The Lancet.

The university has barred Strasser, who has denied any wrongdoing, from seeing patients.

Sorg, in a letter sent to colleagues in Austria and his native Germany and leaked to Austrian newspaper Tiroler Tageszeitung, wrote that high level Austrian officials were trying to squelch a "medical scandal of unprecedented scale". According to Nature, the university council contends that Sorg is guilty of a "serious breech of duties" because he criticized the handling of the misconduct and violated official secrecy. The ex-rector now plans to sue the institution.