Wyoming grad student Aili Wang arrested at LAX over alleged acrylamide poisoning of colleague's tea

Mixed · 2Aili Wang, 32, a microbiology graduate student at the University of Wyoming who is from China, was arrested Oct. 6 at Los Angeles International Airport on accusations she poisoned a colleague's tea; prosecutors allege she was trying to return to China after police questioned her. 1 2 Mixed · 2She was carrying laptops, electronic storage devices and documents, which police now hold, and she remained jailed without bail in Los Angeles on Tuesday. 1 2 Mixed · 2Court documents identify the alleged victim only as K.T. His symptoms began soon after a conference in August: extreme tiredness, inability to sleep, then finger tingling and numbness and leg weakness that took him to the campus health clinic. According to their professor, Mark Gomelsky, he also noticed a strange taste in tea made with a small coffee maker on his desk. 1 2

Mixed · 2His wife and others boiled down water from the coffee maker and isolated 63 milligrams of white powder that tested positive for acrylamide, according to the affidavit; a chemistry professor had tested the water and identified the chemical, and the group gave the sample to university police. 1 2 Mixed · 2The victim and campus police then installed surveillance cameras in the office he shared with Wang. A campus police officer's affidavit says she was recorded going through his desk on Sept. 27, and on Oct. 1 taking photos, manipulating notebooks and rinsing out his mug with liquid from her own mug. 1 2 Mixed · 2Police say Wang bought acrylamide on eBay twice last summer and then asked eBay to delete her account. In a campus police interview on Oct. 5 she allegedly said she "had not used acrylamide in years." She was taken into custody the next day. 1 2

Mixed · 2The affidavit says the two did not share research areas and did not get along, that Wang had no reason to go through his desk, and that she was reportedly working on similar research in China before coming to the U.S. His work was federally funded and patent-pending, involving new technology for cancer, neurological and genetic disease treatment. 1 2 Mixed · 2Gomelsky, who supervises both students, told The Associated Press that Wang had failed her first attempt to defend her dissertation and became envious of her colleague's success in delivering RNA to human cells using bacteria. These are his statements, not findings in court. He said the accusations were "one of the worst shocks in my professional career." 1 2 Mixed · 2Assistant professor Tak Sumaya, who helped identify the substance, said acrylamide is not something found in such quantity anywhere. In the Post's copy he also said Wang photographed every page of a notebook the victim left on his desk, which he said she would have had no good reason to do. The Post's copy also reports Gomelsky saying Wang had not been doing lab work since June while writing her dissertation. 2 1

Mixed · 2Acrylamide is a carcinogenic byproduct of cooking starchy food and burning tobacco, can be acutely toxic in high doses, and is used in microbiology research on proteins or DNA. Gomelsky said the victim still has symptoms, including trouble focusing, tiring easily and loss of sensation in his left hand, and that it is unclear whether he will fully recover because acrylamide is a neurotoxin. 1 2 Mixed · 2Wang faces a felony aggravated assault and battery charge in Wyoming, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Albany County Circuit Court Judge Robert Sanford raised her bond from $200,000 to $1.5 million, cash only. It is unclear when she could be extradited. Court documents list no attorney for her, and the AP could not reach her for comment. 1 2