UC Riverside police say they believe what officials initially characterized as a spill of low-level radioactive material in April was actually an attack on employees in the genomics lab.

Police are still looking for a suspect, as well as someone who posted comments on a Press-Enterprise story about the contamination of a lab who seemed to know how the attack was carried out.

From January to April, the lab in Room 4126 of the genomics building has had doors vandalized, freezers shut off with experiments ruined, test tubes stolen and three gas valves turned on and left unattended. Also, a laptop computer, camera and lab notebooks were stolen, according to an affidavit filed by Detective Tricia Harding in Superior Court to obtain a search warrant.

On April 3, a woman named Lu Lu had been working with an isotope called Phosphorous 32, a radioactive material used in medical treatments and fertilizer. The material, which glows in the dark, also helps make small amounts of DNA more visible.

After Lu finished, she checked herself with Geiger counter and discovered that her hands, lab coat and pen had been contaminated, the affidavit said. A search of the lab found radiation in three desks and on a fume hood. Lab employees told Harding that Phosphorous 32 and other radioactive materials were used only in designated safety areas and that desks and the hood would not be contaminated unless someone did it deliberately.

“Based on all of the suspicious incidents in the lab, I believe someone was trying to deliberately sabotage the research of the lab,” Harding wrote. “Furthermore, I believe that someone deliberately exposed lab employees to radiation with the intent to cause them serious physical harm.”

Harding characterized the intentional exposure as an assault with a deadly weapon.

Light exposure to Phosphorous 32 can result in radiation sickness, with symptoms of nausea, stomach cramping, hair loss, skin burns and diminished organ function. Heavier exposure can destroy intestinal linings and cause bleeding and death, according to medical reports.

On April 4, The Press-Enterprise published a story about the contamination, which forced the evacuation of about 100 people. The story, citing a Riverside city fire captain, said a small amount of radioactive material was found in a drawer where research was being conducted.

That prompted a reader with the Yahoo profile of Rad Rad to write in the comments section of the story: “Small amount! This is not true! Concentrated P32 was spread onto a fan to make it airborne. It is yet to be decontaminated. The woman was not decontaminated on site and was in fact back at work the following day still with a radioactive finger but wearing a glove to prevent further contamination,” the reader wrote.

Rad Rad wrote in a separate comment: “There has been total inaction until yesterday. As soon as radioactive is mentioned then the place is full of police, FBI, ambulances, fire trucks. Oh well at least the lab was not burnt down.”

Those comments prompted Harding to look for Rad Rad. She wrote the search warrant affidavit to compel Yahoo to turn over the reader’s identity. The search warrant was served, but Yahoo was unable to find that information, Harding said in a phone interview Thursday.

Harding said there have been no further incidents in the lab and that it is being used during the summer. UCR officials have said they have taken unspecified measures to improve security.

GENOME RESEARCHER WINS SCIENCE PRIZE

A faculty member in UCR’s Institute for Integrative Genome Biology recently won a national award for his research. Jason Stajich, an associate professor of plant pathology and microbiology, won the 2014 Alexopoulos Prize by the Mycological Society of America, a scientific organization dedicated to the study of fungi including mushrooms, molds, truffles, yeasts and medically important fungi.

Stajich’s research includes using genomic approaches to study fungal biology and evolution. He also co-leads a project to generate genome sequence and analyze 1,000 fungal genomes, according to a UCR news release.

Contact the writer: brokos@pe.com or 951-368-9569