Wisconsin Researcher Charged With Stealing Cancer Data For China

By Amy Cavanaugh in News on Apr 4, 2013 6:00PM

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported this week that a Medical College of Wisconsin researcher has been charged with "stealing a possible cancer-fighting compound and research data that led to its development." The researcher, Huajun Zhao, was allegedly going to give the information to a Chinese university.

Zhao, an associate researcher at the college, was helping professor Marshall Anderson conduct experiments in pharmacology.

On Feb. 22, Anderson set down three pill bottle-size containers of a cancer research compound called C-25, and later noticed they were missing from his desk. After searching extensively for the bottles, he reported them lost or stolen on Feb. 26.

The next day, security video showed Zhao entering Anderson's office on Feb. 22, and leaving shortly after. No one else was seen entering the office on the videos. Security officials questioned Zhao, who didn't admit or deny taking the compound, but said he couldn't understand the questions, and that, regardless, everything would be resolved in 10 days.

Jessica Luedtke, the college's public safety manager, called the FBI to say that Zhao had been disciplined several months ago for putting lab data on his personal computer. Staff also learned that Zhao was posting claims on a professional researcher's website that he had a cancer-fighting compound to bring back to China.

The compound is C-25, which a spokeswoman for the Medical College says is "being studied to see if it can assist cancer drugs in killing cancer cells and not damaging 'normal' cells."

On Feb. 27, Zhao was placed on administrative leave and on March 1, he met with Anderson, college security and the FBI to "go over his computer, hard drive and flash drive, where 384 items related to Anderson's C-25 research were discovered and deleted. He also had some research from another professor in the Hematology/Oncology department, without permission."

After Zhao's suspension, he allegedly remotely accessed college servers and deleted Anderson's raw data from the C-25 research, but the college was able to restore the information.

Zhao, who was arrested Saturday and held without bail over the weekend, has been charged with one count of economic espionage, which is punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. He has denied stealing research or deleting data and is being detained until trial. No trial date has been set.