Researchers from China were stripped of their access to Canada's National Microbiology Lab, which works on some of the world’s most deadly human and animal pathogens.

Canada’s national police force said it is investigating “possible policy breaches” by Xiangguo Qiu, a scientist from China, her husband Keding Cheng, a biologist at the same lab, and a group of her students who were escorted from the facility earlier this month.

The Public Health Agency of Canada first advised authorities of potential issues in late May. A spokesman has said there is no risk to the public and that it is looking into an “administrative” matter. The agency has declined to provide further details.

However, the investigation comes amid a diplomatic row between Canada and China. It also highlights growing global security concerns involving foreign scientists over confidentiality, intellectual property and collaboration – a longtime hallmark of research and academia – particularly with state-funded research.

Qiu is a prominent virologist who helped develop ZMapp, a treatment for the Ebola virus, which killed around 11,300 people in West Africa between 2014 to 2016. Mr Cheng’s research has included HIV, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), E.coli infections and the Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome.

Ethnic Chinese scientists have faced particular scrutiny recently in the US as concerns of espionage and intellectual property theft have grown alongside a protracted trade war between Beijing and Washington.