A Japanese woman and a Chinese man, both researchers, were arrested Wednesday in southern California on suspicion of stealing genetic materials and information from a Harvard Medical School lab, the U.S. Justice Department said.

Kayoko Kinbara, 32, and Zhu Jiangyu, 30, who were postdoctoral fellows at Harvard, were charged with conspiracy, theft of trade secrets and interstate transportation of stolen property, and with trying to profit by collaborating with a Japanese company, the department said.

"Prosecuting people who steal the intellectual property of individuals and institutions is a very high priority for the Department of Justice," U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan said.

It is the second recent incident in which a Japanese medical researcher has been charged with economic espionage in the U.S., following a case in May 2001 involving a researcher for the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, a Japanese government-backed laboratory also known as Riken.