Alleged Isotope Assault Shocks UCI Researchers

UCI scientists expressed puzzlement and surprise Friday over accusations against a fellow researcher, who was charged this week with using a radioactive isotope to contaminate the chair of a co-worker.

Several said the amount of material used was relatively small but criticized any breach of research safety. They also described the accused as friendly and not someone they would suspect of that type of activity.

“This is sad . . . but it seems more of a symbolic gesture than someone doing something malicious,” said Dr. John H. Weiss, director of the neural injury research laboratory, which adjoins the lab where the incident happened in early July. “It certainly wasn’t as much as one could have used if you wanted to hurt someone, or you could have put a whole lot more in their coffee.”

He and others emphasized, though, that they do not condone playing with dangerous material. “That is unacceptable,” Weiss said.

Andrew Andris Blakis, 32, of West Los Angeles was arrested Thursday and charged with assault with a deadly weapon. He posted $25,000 bail and was released Friday from the Orange County Men’s Central Jail.

He is also charged with unlawful disposal of radioactive material, which he allegedly smeared on the chair of Jingtong Zuo, a colleague in the molecular genetics laboratory at the Gillespie Neuroscience Research Facility.

If Blakis is convicted, he could be sentenced to five years and eight months in prison.

Fellow researchers expressed amazement over the incident.

“I am really surprised if he is the one who did it,” said Dr. Stefano Sensi, assistant professor of neurology at the UCI College of Medicine. “Everyone had good relationships with him. We shared equipment, and he was always helpful.”

Zuo, her family and prosecutors expressed concern that the isotope could cause harmful, long-term effects. She was exposed to P32, a waxy colorless chemical, for six hours over two days.

“It is difficult to say [whether she was harmed], because radioactivity can damage DNA and create carcinogens in the future,” said Zuo’s husband, Ming Zhao, a medical doctor and an assistant researcher at the Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia at the College of Medicine.

Prosecutors said she was exposed to 450 millirems, an amount equal to the radiation an average person receives in one year.

“You cannot rule out that she could have inhaled or ingested this material,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Lance Jensen said. “You can’t rule out that she could have accidentally touched it and then put her fingers in her mouth.”

Prosecutors consider Blakis “a danger to the public” because he used a potentially deadly material improperly, Jensen said. They had unsuccessfully argued for $50,000 bail when Blakis was arrested Thursday.

Blakis allegedly smeared the isotope on Zuo’s chair July 1 in an act of retaliation after finding radioactive contamination at his work area, said Tori Richards, spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

She would not say how UCI police, who investigated the case, determined that Blakis placed the material on Zuo’s chair. She said Zuo was not implicated in the earlier contamination.

Zuo, who was at her on-campus apartment Friday with her husband and 2-year-old daughter, said she “never did anything wrong and was very nice” to Blakis. There was no cause for retaliation “and no personal dispute,” she said.