A US judge has refused to throw out a lawsuit accusing Northwestern University of mistreating Chinese-American neuroscientist Jane Wu before her suicide, allowing the case to move ahead.
The ruling on Tuesday rejected the university’s request for dismissal and means one of the most consequential cases related to the now-defunct “China Initiative” will proceed into a more substantive phase, with the next hearing set for mid-May.
Wu’s family alleges the former Dr Charles L. Mix research professor with Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine took her own life, aged 60, in July 2024 as a direct result of how she was treated amid years of investigations into her ties to China.
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The relatives claim the university sidelined Wu, shutting down her laboratory and reassigning her research grants. They also allege that, weeks before her death, Wu was removed from her office in handcuffs and forced into a psychiatric unit.
At the latest hearing in Chicago, Cook County Judge Jonathan Green said the family’s key claims – including discrimination based on national origin and allegations of wrongful confinement – were strong enough to continue.
Green also allowed claims to move forward relating to severe emotional harm and alleged mishandling of Wu’s psychiatric admission by university-linked doctors, which means questions about how she was admitted and held will be examined in court.
