Wyoming grad student allegedly poisoned colleague, tried to flee US: ‘Student’s life is in danger’

A Chinese microbiology graduate student from Wyoming has been arrested, accused of poisoning the tea of ​​a colleague who had patents in progress and with whom she didn’t get along, then trying to flee the country after police questioned her.

Aili Wang, 32, was arrested Oct. 6 at Los Angeles International Airport, where prosecutors say she was seeking to return to China. With her were laptops, electronic storage devices and documents now in the possession of police, who say Wang was seen on surveillance video searching the victim’s office, which specialized in technology for treating illnesses – searches similar to those she had done in China.

Wang remained jailed without bail Tuesday in Los Angeles. She allegedly purchased a chemical, acrylamide, on eBay, and it was first detected when the alleged victim’s wife and others tested water from the coffee maker he used to make tea.

U.S. officials have for years accused China of stealing intellectual property from American universities.

The microbiology professor who supervises the two graduate students, Mark Gomelsky, said the accusations left him in shock. He did not know if the victim would make a full recovery.

“It’s disheartening to say the least to see that one of your students’ lives is in danger and another student may be responsible,” Gomelsky told the Associated Press. “It was one of the worst shocks of my professional career.”

Wang had no attorney listed in court documents. The AP tried to reach her by email and LinkedIn messages.

Amateur investigation helps campus cops develop a case

The police investigation began after the victim, identified in court documents as “KT,” began experiencing symptoms and his wife and others allegedly isolated the chemical from the coffee maker’s water. The victim and campus police then installed surveillance cameras in the office he shared with Wang at the University of Laramie.

Wang was allegedly recorded on September 27 passing by the alleged victim’s office. On Oct. 1, she was recorded “taking photos and handling notebooks” at her desk, as well as rinsing her cup with liquid from her own cup, according to a University of Wyoming campus police officer’s affidavit.

Wang and the alleged victim, who did not share the same areas of research, did not get along, according to the affidavit.

During an interview with campus police on October 5, Wang reportedly said she “hadn’t used acrylamide in years.” A day later, she was arrested in Los Angeles while in possession of “multiple laptop computers, multiple portable external digital storage devices, related paraphernalia, physical records and written materials,” according to a request from Wyoming prosecutors to “significantly increase” her $200,000 bond upon extradition.

Wang had no reason to stop by the office of the other student whose federally funded, patent-pending research involved “new technology for the treatment of cancer, neurological and genetic diseases,” according to the affidavit.

Wang “reportedly worked on similar research in China before coming to the United States,” the affidavit claims.

The alleged victim is a high-achieving student

Gomelsky described the alleged victim as a very successful Vietnamese student.

Wang failed her first attempt to defend her thesis and became jealous of her colleague’s success in discovering how to deliver RNA to human cells using bacteria, Gomelsky told The Associated Press.

The alleged victim began experiencing extreme fatigue, an inability to sleep and other unexplained symptoms shortly after attending a prestigious conference in August, Gomelsky said.

He also noticed a strange taste in the tea he was making with a small coffee maker on his desk, Gomelsky said. When he washed the coffee pot, Gomelsky said, the taste would disappear.

Suspecting that someone in their shared office might be poisoning the graduate student, Gomelsky said a chemistry professor tested the water and identified acrylamide.

Wang hadn’t done any lab work since June while working on her dissertation, he said.

Suspect likely to return to Wyoming to face charges

Wang faces a charge of aggravated assault and battery in Wyoming, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

It’s unclear when she might be extradited to the state, where Albany County Circuit Court Judge Robert Sanford granted prosecutors’ request and increased bail to $1.5 million cash-only.

Wang allegedly asked eBay to delete his account after he purchased acrylamide on the online shopping site twice last summer, police said.

Best known as a carcinogenic byproduct of cooking starchy foods and burning tobacco, acrylamide can be extremely toxic in high doses. It is used in microbiology research involving proteins or DNA.

The 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 this kind of quantity anywhere,” Sumaya said.

The alleged victim was working on “a fairly promising cancer treatment method,” Sumaya said. Wang, Sumaya added, took photos of every page of a notebook the alleged victim had left on his desk.

“You wouldn’t do that with your office or lab colleague’s notebook unless there was a really good reason, and there wasn’t,” Sumaya said.

Professor says victim still has symptoms

The alleged victim visited the campus health clinic in August with worsening tingling and numbness in her fingers, as well as weakness in her legs. Suspicion led his wife and others to boil water in the shared office coffee pot to isolate 63 milligrams of white powder that tested positive for acrylamide, according to the affidavit.

Amateur investigators turned the sample over to university police.

The alleged victim continues to experience symptoms related to the poisoning, including an inability to concentrate, getting tired easily and loss of sensation in his left hand, Gomelsky said.

“Acrylamide is a neurotoxin that cannot be neutralized, so it stays in the neurons and kills them. So it is unknown whether he will fully recover or not,” the professor said.

Similar case in California

A chemical engineer from Berkeley, California, suffered years of unexplained illness until she bought a spy camera and caught her colleague, David Xu, poisoning her food and water with cadmium. He took a plea deal and served two years of probation for one count of poisoning.

According to court records, in October 2017, Xu started trying to poison a fellow engineerRong Yuan, by mixing “poison and harmful substance with food, drinks, medicines and pharmaceuticals” owned by Yuan.

Yuan allegedly “noticed a strange taste or smell coming from his water and food left unattended in his office,” according to the criminal complaint. She then began experiencing “immediate and significant health problems after consuming this water and food, sometimes requiring emergency care at a hospital.”