Last week, I wrote that federal agents had arrested Yunqing Jian, a University of Michigan scholar originally from China, on charges related to the attempted smuggling of a hazardous biological pathogen into the United States.
Jian, 33, and her boyfriend Zunyong Liu, 34, are accused of conspiring to bring the fungus Fusarium graminearum (classified in scientific literature as a potential agroterrorism weapon) into the country supposedly for research purposes at a University of Michigan laboratory.
Now, Chengxuan Han, a Chinese national and Ph.D. student at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) in Wuhan, has been charged with smuggling biological material into the United States and making false statements to federal authorities. Han was apprehended this weekend, upon arrival at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on a J1 visa after a flight from China.
Upon Han’s arrival to the US, border officers discovered Han sent four packages that “contained biological material related to round worms” from China, according to court documents.The packages, which were sent in both 2024 and 2025, were addressed to individuals associated with a laboratory at the University of Michigan.However, Han lied to officers and said she didn’t send packages to members of the Michigan lab, according to court documents. She also claimed the packages contained plastic cups, rather than petri dishes.When the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations grilled Han, she admitted to shipping the biological materials to the lab from her research as a Ph.D. student from the College of Life Science and Technology in the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) in Wuhan, according to court documents.
When questioned about the samples, Han indicated that how she labelled them was part of “a game”.
Han was linked to four packages of concealed or mis-manifested biological material addressed to people associated with the UM lab from September 2024 to March, according to the FBI. The two recipients are not identified by name.Han told investigators the packages contained Nematode growth medium, which is used to cultivate a type of worm in laboratory settings, according to the court filing. The packages also contained plasmids, which the National Human Genome Research Institute defines as a small DNA molecule found in bacteria and some microscopic organisms.Han denied that anybody directed her to send the shipments. When asked about one package, Han said she sent it “as a ‘game’ with clues written above each plasmid,'” according to the FBI.
It is interesting to note that the content of Han’s electronic device had been deleted three days prior to her arrival in the United States.
“The alleged smuggling of biological materials by this alien from a science and technology university in Wuhan, China — to be used at a University of Michigan laboratory — is part of an alarming pattern that threatens our security,” said US Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr. in a statement.”The American taxpayer should not be underwriting a PRC-based smuggling operation at one of our crucial public institutions.
Roundworms can cause a variety of diseases depending on the specific species involved and the tissues or organs affected. Either humans or animals can be infected.
However, the specific species or strain of roundworm involved has not been publicly identified in the criminal complaint or official statements. Authorities and court documents only reference “biological material related to roundworms,” without further taxonomic detail.
A common laboratory model roundworm is Caenorhabditis elegant, a free-living, transparent nematode (roundworm) about 1 mm in length, commonly found in temperate soil environments. It is widely used as a model organism in biological research, especially in genetics, neuroscience, and developmental biology, due to its simple anatomy, short life cycle, and fully sequenced genome. Notably, C. elegans is not a parasite of humans or animals and does not cause disease in mammals.
But if this was the type of roundworm Han brought in, what would be the need for secrecy?
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