Wyndham Lathem

Wyndham Willoughby Lathem (born August 10, 1974) is a former associate professor of microbiology-immunology in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. He is a specialist in pathogenic bacteria, and specifically in how the Black Death plague causes disease in human beings and how it has evolved over time.

On July 27, 2017, a fatal stabbing occurred at Wyndham's Chicago apartment. Following the stabbing Wyndham went missing, but he eventually turned himself in to police in Oakland, California on August 4.[1]

Early life

Wyndham Lathem was born August 10, 1974.[2] He completed his AB in biology at Vassar College (1992–96). He was a research technician at Rockefeller University from 1996 to 1998 in the laboratory of James E. Darnell, Jr., and earned his PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in microbiology (2003) in the laboratory of Rod Welch.[3]

Career

Lathem was a post-doctoral fellow at Washington University School of Medicine in molecular microbiology from 2003 to 2007 in the laboratory of Bill Goldman, now professor and chair of microbiology and immunology at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Goldman described Lathem as "very competitive in terms of getting NIH [National Institutes of Health] funding for his work ... and is respected for high quality research".[4]

Until his employment was terminated on August 4, 2017,[5] Lathem was associate professor of microbiology-immunology in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. His research relates to how pathogenic bacteria, specifically Yersinia pestis, the Black Death plague, cause disease in human beings[6][7] and how the bacterium has evolved over time.[8] In 2016 he spoke at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine on "Your Own Worst Enemy: How Yersinia pestis Turns the Body Against Itself."[9] In 2017, he presented on "From Mild to Murderous: How Yersinia pestis Evolved to Cause Pneumonic Plague".[10]

Arrest

In early August 2017, he and Andrew Warren were detained in connection with the July 27, 2017 fatal stabbing of Trenton Cornell-Duranleau that occurred at Lathem's apartment in Chicago. On August 4 Lathem turned himself in to police in Oakland, California, and Warren turned himself in to police in San Francisco.[1] He was returned to Chicago on August 18.[11] He remains incarcerated in Chicago's Cook County Jail, where he is awaiting trial. He has entered a plea of "not guilty."

gollark: We already have had those.
gollark: I read some rough prediction that humanity has a 1 in 6 risk of being entirely wiped out in the next 100 years.
gollark: Neither of which would be very good, of course.
gollark: Possibly? But wiping out *all humanity* is hard. Wiping out civilization is much easier though.
gollark: I mean, it's *bad*, sure, but not "likely to wipe out humanity" bad.

References
  1. "Professor, British man suspected in brutal slaying surrender peacefully". CBS News. Associated Press. 5 August 2017. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
  2. Inmate Locator. Alameda County. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
  3. Wyndham W Lathem, PhD. Northwestern Medicine. Archived at archive.org Retrieved 6 August 2017.
  4. Official: Police closing in on Northwestern-Oxford duo. Don Babwin, AP, The Washington Post, 3 August 2017. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
  5. Jaschik, Scott (August 9, 2017). "Northwestern Fires Accused Murderer". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
  6. "Oxford University worker in murder manhunt", Nadeem Badshah, The Times, 3 August 2017, p. 17.
  7. How small genetic change in Yersinia pestis changed human history. phys.org 30 June 2015. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
  8. Studying bubonic plague at Northwestern. Aimee Levitt, chicago reader.com, 12 April 2013. Retrieved 8 August 2017.
  9. Wyndham Lathem, Ph.D., "Your Own Worst Enemy: How Yersinia pestis Turns the Body Against Itself." Department of Microbiology and Immunology, UNC School of Medicine, 2016. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
  10. From Mild to Murderous: How Yersinia pestis Evolved to Cause Pneumonic Plague. Recording Archaeology, YouTube, 30 January 2017. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
  11. Pope, Ben (August 19, 2017). "Ex-Feinberg Prof. Wyndham Lathem returns to Chicago; meth found in stabbing victim's autopsy". The Daily Northwestern.
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