A Wyoming microbiology graduate student from China has been arrested on accusations she poisoned the tea of a colleague who had pending patents, then tried to flee the U.S. after police questioned her.
Aili Wang, 32, was arrested Oct. 6 at Los Angeles International Airport, where prosecutors allege she sought to return to China. With her were “multiple” laptops, electronic storage devices and documents now in the possession of police.
Investigators say Wang was seen on surveillance video rummaging through the desk of the alleged victim, who specialized in technology for disease treatment — research similar to work Wang had done in China.
Wang remained jailed without bail Tuesday in Los Angeles.
It’s claimed the poison was first detected when the wife of the alleged victim and others tested water from the coffee maker he used to brew tea.
The microbiology professor overseeing both graduate students, Mark Gomelsky, said the accusations have left him reeling. He said he was uncertain if the alleged victim will fully recover.
“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.”
Wang has no attorney listed in court documents. The Associated Press tried to reach her via email and LinkedIn messages.
Surveillance in shared office space
The police investigation began after the victim, identified in court documents as K.T., began experiencing symptoms and his wife and others allegedly isolated the chemical acrylamide in the coffee maker’s water.
K.T. and campus police then set up surveillance cameras in the office space he shared with Wang at the university in Laramie, Wyo.
Wang allegedly was recorded Sept. 27 going through K.T.’s desk. On Oct. 1, she was recorded “taking photos and manipulating notebooks” on his desk, as well as rinsing out his mug with a liquid from her own mug, a University of Wyoming campus police officer’s affidavit said.
Wang and the alleged victim, who did not share research areas, did not get along, according to the affidavit.
Police said Wang had asked eBay to delete her account after she bought acrylamide over the online retail site twice last summer.
A carcinogenic byproduct of cooking starchy food and burning tobacco, acrylamide, which can be acutely toxic in high doses, is also used in microbiology research involving proteins or DNA.
During an interview by campus police on Oct. 5, Wang allegedly said she “had not used acrylamide in years.”
A day later she was taken into custody in Los Angeles while in possession of “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 US bond upon extradition.
Wang had no reason to go through the desk of the other student whose federally funded, patent-pending research involved “new technology for cancer, neurological and genetic disease treatment,” according to the affidavit.
Wang “was reportedly working on similar research in China before coming to the U.S.,” the affidavit alleges.
Envied colleague’s success, prof says
Gomelsky described the alleged victim as a highly successful student from Vietnam.
Wang failed her first attempt to defend her dissertation and became envious 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 tiredness, inability to sleep and other unexplained symptoms soon after attending a conference in August, Gomelsky said.
Later that month he went to the campus health clinic with worsening finger tingling and numbness, and leg weakness.
The student also said he had noticed a strange taste in the tea that he made with a small coffee maker on his desk, Gomelsky said, and that when he washed the coffee maker the taste would go away.
Suspecting someone in their shared office could be poisoning the student, Gomelsky said a chemistry professor tested the water and identified acrylamide.
The water from the coffee maker was boiled down 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.
Unclear if alleged victim will recover
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 added.
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.
Wang faces a felony aggravated assault and battery charge in Wyoming punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 US 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 US, cash only.