King’s College scientist who ‘came down with RSI’ after squeezing laboratory pipettes sues for £50k

A scientist who claims to have suffered a repetitive strain injury after his lab bosses made him squeeze pipettes repeatedly while on the job is suing for £50,000.

Stem cell expert Dr Syed Mian, 36, says he was left with crippling pain in both hands and severe anxiety after hours of intensive lab work while conducting experiments at King’s College London.

The award-winning investigator claims his former employer failed to ensure his workplace was safe for him and sued them for £50,000 in compensation after he became depressed and unable to handle manual labor.

King’s College, which is a world-leading research center and has produced 12 Nobel Prize winners, has admitted dereliction of duty but says Dr Mian failed to alert them in time that he was suffering at work.

Dr Mian, from Sutton, was working on the university’s Denmark Hill campus in south London when he first ran into trouble, court documents reveal.

As a research fellow, much of his work involved “pipetting,” which required him to grasp the pipet and squeeze the rubber knobs with his thumb.

“This required a significant amount of pressure and he would do this task for long periods without rotation or rest throughout the day,” his legal team states.

When Dr. Mian began experiencing pain in his right hand in July 2018, he was diagnosed with tenosynovitis, a form of RSI that causes inflammation on the side of the wrist and the base of the thumb.

Pain and swelling prevented him from using his right hand for pipetting, but he adapted by switching to his left hand only to develop similar problems with his left hand and thumb.

Dr Mian, from Sutton, was working on the university’s Denmark Hill campus in south London when he first ran into trouble, court documents reveal. [File image]

The repeated pipetting technique has left him with persistent pain and discomfort around the thumbs and wrists of both hands, which has also caused depression and anxiety.

King’s College lawyers say it should not pay any compensation to Dr Mian, who now works for the Francis Crick Institute, researching interactions between stem cells and bone marrow in cancer patients.

“He did not report in time that he was experiencing symptoms as a result of his work” and continued to pipet despite suspecting it was the source of his problems, they say.

The case is scheduled for trial at Central London County Court on a date to be determined.