A Chinese researcher arrested in the United States provided Nagoya's Medical & Biological Laboratories Co. with genetic information around December 1999 that he allegedly stole from a Harvard Medical School lab to make an antibody, informed sources said Monday.
Zhu Jiangyu, 30, and his Japanese wife, Kayoko Kinbara, 32, were arrested June 19 by the FBI on charges of conspiracy, theft of trade secrets and interstate transportation of stolen property while they were postdoctoral fellows at Harvard's cell biology department. They were released on bail June 27.
The two, who worked at the department until December 1999, have denied the charges.
Sachiko Suno, chairwoman of the Nagoya-based antibody manufacturer, said, "We did not know that it was stolen genetic information."
Another company official said, "We did not intend to make a new drug with the information, either."
According to the company, Zhu sent the firm four sets of genetic information and asked it to make an antibody for rejection symptoms caused by organ transplants around December 1999 via e-mail.
Zhu knew the company because a fellow researcher at the Harvard lab was from Medical & Biological, the company said.
It said that while it had sent the antibody to Zhu in February 2000, it has not been able to contact him since May 2000.
"We made the antibody in order to support his research activities," it added.
It also said it had told a Harvard professor that it will return the genetic info after it learned that Zhu and Kinbara had taken it from the lab illegally.