Thermo Fisher

I am engaged in a long-standing research project surrounding Thermo-Fisher Scientific, the multinational corporation who’s Chairman, CEO and President, Marc Casper, is on our board. I came to this project after being asked to research the Board of Trustees for an activist group on campus, and was amazed to find that someone with such an active role in facilitating the detention of Uyghurs was on the board of this purportedly liberal organization.

Marc Casper has an outsize influence on Wesleyan’s administration and operations – he’s the former Chair of the board, and our $300 million dollar science center was approved for construction during that time. His products already outfit all of our labs, and no doubt will outfit the high-tech labs currently being constructed. He also has a long-standing relationship with Chinese president Xi Jinping, as the head of the US-China Business Council. Thermo Fisher has long been criticized for their role in developing a DNA test, in collaboration with Chinese state scientists, that was used to identify if someone was of Uhygur, Hui or Tibetan descent. They were also able to use advanced genetic technology, along with a DNA database, to identify genetic relationships between individuals – allowing Chinese police to systematically target and detain the families and relatives of critics and outspoken individuals. Before anyone was interned in a Uygur detention camp, they were forced to take one of these PCR tests – a level of invasive genetic monitoring not experienced by any population on the planet. Many of the research papers used to develop these tests have since been redacted for ethics and abuse concerns. 

I reported on this for our school newspaper, writing an article detailing the use and development of the PCR DNA tests, connecting Marc Casper’s influence and facilitation of human rights abuses in China and our President Michael Roth’s insistence on defending him.

You can read the article here.

After publishing, I was contacted by and subsequently interviewed researcher Yves Moreau, who has been writing about Thermo-Fisher’s involvement in Uygur Internment.

Now, my research focuses on more recent claims of organ harvesting that have been brought up against the Chinese government. Much has been written about the discrepancy between the number of reported organ donations and the number of reported organ transplants, as well as testimony from surgeons and people who have reported having their organs stolen. There has recently been testimony to congress regarding Thermo-Fisher’s involvement in this organ harvesting – some have suggested that a DNA database is far too expensive to create and facilitate unless it is being actively used for organ matching. Additionally, I have found connections between Chinese research labs discussing organ transplantation outcomes, especially in post-death donations, that use Thermo-Fisher technology to confirm their findings. I hope to create an interactive map of the hospitals that have been identified as organ transplant hotspots, and aim to see if there’s a spike in reported organ transplants should Thermo-Fisher be present, indicating an outsize role in the illegal Chinese organ transplant industry.