Chinese Graduate Student Arrested for Allegedly Poisoning Wyoming Colleague With Neurotoxin

"Chinese Graduate Students Gone Bad” is becoming an unsettling theme in cases involving alleged misconduct at American research institutions.

In my earlier Legal Insurrection report, “Chinese Ph.D. Student Pleads No Contest to Smuggling Biological Materials into U.S.”, I covered Chengxuan Han’s case involving concealed shipments of roundworm-related biological materials to individuals associated with a University of Michigan laboratory.

I also reviewed the separate prosecution involving Yunqing Jian and Zunyong Liu, accused of smuggling a crop-damaging fungus, in “NIH Monkeypox Scientists Accused of Smuggling Virus Samples through Detroit Metro Airport.”

These cases raise questions about research oversight and biological-material safeguards related to Chinese graduate students participating in these studies while in our country.

Now, there are reports that University of Wyoming microbiology graduate student Aili Wang allegedly poisoned a colleague’s tea with acrylamide and attempted to flee to China before her arrest at Los Angeles International Airport.