Northwestern sued over suicide of professor targeted in China investigation
Jane Wu was a tenured faculty member in neurology, molecular biology and genetics at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine for nearly two decades. She was among hundreds of Chinese American scientists targeted by the Justice Department's China Initiative, a Trump-era program seeking to counter theft of American intellectual property and research.
Though Wu was never charged, Northwestern reassigned her grant funding, closed her lab and forcibly admitted her to the university's psychiatric hospital, according to a civil complaint filed June 23 in Cook County Circuit Court. The executor of Wu's estate is her daughter.
The university's actions were a 'substantial and decisive factor in her decision to end her life,' the complaint stated.
'Anyone who reads the facts of this complaint will recognize that a great injustice was done to Jane Wu,' attorney Thomas Geoghegan said.
A spokesperson for Northwestern said the university does not comment on pending litigation.
The China Initiative was scrapped in 2022 under the Biden administration. Though more than 200 Chinese American researchers were investigated, only about 20% were charged and subsequently convicted. Critics said the program fueled a narrative of bias and created a chilling effect among the academic community.
After Wu was identified in the probe, she was placed under an administrative investigation by the National Institutes of Health. Though she was a longtime professor, her grants were reassigned to her white male colleagues and her research team was dissolved, according to the filing.
'NU did nothing to support her nor help lift the racial stigma placed over Dr. Wu despite her obvious innocence and the enormous funding her work had brought to NU,' the complaint said.
Even when the NIH's investigation concluded in December 2023, Wu's grants were not returned to her, according to the lawsuit. Her lab was completely shut down by May 2024, preventing her from applying for new NIH funding. Because Wu's research was listed as inactive, Northwestern reduced her salary.
Feeling increasingly isolated, Wu began to spiral into a deep depression and show signs of obsessive behavior, the filing said.
'NU destroyed not only Dr. Wu's chances at NIH funding but also her research career,' the complaint said.
That same month, university and Chicago police removed Wu from her office in handcuffs. She was then admitted against her will to the psychiatric unit of Northwestern Memorial Hospital 'as a means to end her active research and employment,' according to the lawsuit.
Wu died by suicide weeks later, on July 10, 2024, 'with her career, her professional reputation, and her sense of personal safety shattered.' She was 60 years old.
The complaint did not specify what damages the estate seeks.
The filing said Wu became a naturalized citizen in 2000, and had spent nearly 40 years in the United States. She had won continuous NIH funding since 1996. Her work investigated the molecular biology of mRNA and neurodegeneration, seeking to fight diseases such as Alzheimer's and ALS.
Margaret Flanagan, now an associate professor at University of Texas Health San Antonio, worked beside Wu for more than three years at the Feinberg School of Medicine. But she was more than a colleague, Flanagan said — she was a mentor and friend, with a deep passion for science and unwavering generosity.
'Her legacy is one of strength, compassion, and a relentless commitment to advancing science,' Flanagan wrote in a statement to the Tribune.
Wu was intense and thoughtful, Flanagan said, and her astute advice has stuck with her colleague years later. She often reminded Flanagan to 'focus on (her) science.' Wu always centered her work around a larger mission of advancing knowledge and helping patients, Flanagan said.
The pair largely fell out of touch when Flanagan left Northwestern in 2023.
'I assumed there would be time in the future to reconnect, not knowing how short that time would be,' Flanagan wrote.
Andrea Chu, the Midwest organizing director for Asian American Advancing Justice Chicago, said that Wu's death shows the 'devastating' impact of the China Initiative. She pointed to the lack of cases brought by the Justice Department as an indication that the program was racially biased.
A 2021 investigation from the MIT Technology Review found that 148 individuals were charged, but just 40 of them had pleaded or been found guilty. Only 19 cases included violations of the Economic Espionage Act, the intended focus of the initiative.
'The toll that it took on the scientists themselves, their colleagues and also their families is innumerable,' Chu said. 'This was a great source of fear.'
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