Federal agents are closely monitoring the disappearance case of Harvard biology professor Don C. Wiley because of his research interests in a number of potentially deadly viruses, including Ebola, the FBI said yesterday in Memphis.
Wiley's whereabouts remained a mystery yesterday, a week after his car was found on a bridge over the Mississippi River. His family continued to insist that the noted biologist, whose papers explored the workings of some of the deadliest viruses in the world, would not have killed himself.
William Woerner, the acting assistant special agent in charge of the Memphis FBI office, said his agents became interested in the case after learning of Wiley's profession, then made their interest known to Memphis detectives.
''His line of work and field of expertise [are] what prompted our call to them,'' Woerner said, adding that his office was concerned ''given our state of affairs post-Sept. 11.''
Federal authorities are paying close attention to potential bioterrorist threats. The Ebola virus - about which Wiley was a national expert, along with HIV and influenza - is a hemorrhagic fever that causes the body's fluids to ooze out of tissues and orifices.
Ebola is highly contagious and lethal, killing between 50 and 90 percent of people infected in known outbreaks. There is no vaccine.
Wiley's wife, Katrin Valgeirsdottir, said that while she is baffled by her husband's disappearance, she did not think it was related to his work or papers, which can be found on his lab's Web site.
''That just doesn't seem plausible,'' Valgeirsdottir said. ''I mean, there are a lot of kooks out there, and I don't know for a fact that this wasn't the reason, but you'd have to have someone who read his Web site and decided they found something interesting.''
Woerner said he wasn't sure whether top FBI officials in Washington had been notified about Wiley, who has been missing since Nov. 16. ''It's very likely that Washington has been notified, but I can't confirm that,'' he said. <...> http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/328/nation/FBI_is_watching_case_of_missing_biologist+.shtml