In addition to causing millions of dollars worth of physical damage, the vandals also destroyed important research projects. Human cancer cells taken from brain tumor patients, critical to developing a vaccine against cancer, were destroyed. Scientific information that was being compiled to be sent to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin clinical trials of a human cancer vaccine lost. Animals used in research for Parkinson's disease, cerebral palsy, Huntington's disease and various forms of cancer were stolen. April 5, 1999.
Woodchucks are ideal laboratory animals in which to study liver cancer and hepatitis.
The university breeds them for use in trials of anti-viral drugs and improved vaccines. July 5, 1998. Cavel West provided horse tissue to the Pacific Coast Tissue Bank in Los Angeles which treats skull bone birth defects in children. Pediatric surgeries at area hospitals had to be postponed. July 21, 1997.