A Chinese graduate student at the University of Wyoming has been arrested on allegations that she poisoned a fellow student’s tea. The student reportedly had pending patents.
LOS ANGELES — A Chinese microbiology graduate student at the University of Wyoming was arrested after authorities accused her of contaminating a colleague’s tea with whom she had a strained relationship. Prosecutors also allege she attempted to leave the United States after police questioned her.
Aili Wang, 32, was arrested Oct. 6 at Los Angeles International Airport as she allegedly prepared to return to China. Police seized laptops, electronic storage devices and documents, and say surveillance footage showed Wang searching through the desk of the alleged victim, whose federally supported research focused on technology for treating disease—work similar to research she had pursued in China.
Wang was being held without bail in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Authorities allege she purchased acrylamide through eBay. The chemical was first detected after the alleged victim’s wife and others tested water from the small coffee maker he used to prepare tea.
For years, U.S. officials have accused China of targeting intellectual property developed at American universities.
Mark Gomelsky, the microbiology professor who supervised both students, said the allegations left him stunned. He said he did not know whether the alleged victim would make a full recovery.
“It’s been disheartening, to say the least, to see that one of your student’s life is in jeopardy and another student may be responsible for that,” Gomelsky told The Associated Press. “That was one of the worst shocks in my professional career.”
Court records did not list an attorney for Wang. The Associated Press attempted to contact her through email and LinkedIn.
Amateur sleuthing helps campus cops develop case
The investigation began after the student, identified in court documents as “K.T.,” developed symptoms. His wife and others allegedly isolated the chemical from water inside the coffee maker. K.T. and campus police then installed surveillance cameras in the Laramie office he shared with Wang.
According to an affidavit from a University of Wyoming campus police officer, surveillance footage allegedly showed Wang searching K.T.’s desk on Sept. 27. On Oct. 1, she was reportedly recorded “taking photos and manipulating notebooks” on the desk and rinsing his mug with liquid from her own mug.
The affidavit states that Wang and K.T. worked in different research areas and did not have a good relationship.
During a campus police interview on Oct. 5, Wang allegedly said she “had not used acrylamide in years.” She was arrested in Los Angeles the following day with “multiple laptops, multiple portable external digital storage devices, related accessories, physical records and written materials,” according to a request by Wyoming prosecutors to “significantly increase” her $200,000 bond after extradition.
The affidavit says Wang had no apparent reason to examine K.T.’s desk. His federally funded, patent-pending research involved “new technology for cancer, neurological and genetic disease treatment.”
The affidavit further alleges that Wang “was reportedly working on similar research in China before coming to the U.S.”
A high-achieving student from Vietnam
Gomelsky described K.T. as a highly accomplished student from Vietnam.
Gomelsky told the AP that Wang failed her first dissertation defense and became resentful of K.T.’s success in developing a method to deliver RNA into human cells using bacteria.
The alleged victim began suffering from severe fatigue, insomnia and other unexplained symptoms shortly after attending a prestigious conference in August, Gomelsky said.
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He also noticed an unusual taste in tea brewed with the small coffee maker on his desk. Gomelsky said the taste disappeared whenever the machine was washed.
Concerned that someone in the shared office might be poisoning the student, Gomelsky said a chemistry professor analyzed the water and detected acrylamide.
Wang had not conducted laboratory work since June, when she began focusing on her dissertation, Gomelsky said.
Suspect faces return to Wyoming to face charges
Wang faces a felony aggravated assault and battery charge in Wyoming punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
It’s not clear when she could be extradited to the state, where Albany County Circuit Court Judge Robert Sanford granted prosecutors’ request and raised bond to $1.5 million cash-only.
Wang allegedly asked eBay to delete her account after she bought acrylamide over the online retail site twice last summer, police said.
Best known as a carcinogenic byproduct of cooking starchy food and burning tobacco, acrylamide can be acutely toxic in high doses. It’s used in microbiology research involving proteins or DNA.
Discovery of the substance immediately made Tak Sumaya, an assistant professor who helped identify it in the coffee maker water, suspicious. Acrylamide is “not something you would find in that kind of quantity anywhere,” Sumaya said.
The alleged victim was working on “a pretty promising cancer therapy method,” Sumaya said. Wang, Sumaya added, took photos of every page of a notebook the alleged victim left on his desk.
“You wouldn’t do that with like your office or lab mate’s notebook unless there’s a really good reason, and there wasn’t,” Sumaya said.
Professor says the victim is still experiencing symptoms
The alleged victim went to the campus health clinic in August with worsening finger tingling and numbness, and leg weakness. Suspicion led his wife and others to boil away coffee maker water from the shared office to isolate 63 milligrams of white powder that tested positive for acrylamide, according to the affidavit.
The amateur investigators turned the sample over to university police.
The alleged victim continues to experience symptoms from the poisoning, including not being able to focus, tiring easily and a loss of sensation in his left hand, Gomelsky said.
“Acrylamide is a neurotoxin that cannot be neutralized so it stays in neurons and basically kills them. So it’s unclear if he’ll fully recover or not,” the professor said.
Brown reported from Billings, Montana, and Riddle from Los Angeles.
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