Biotech founder arrested

A federal investigation into the murder of a Vermont man in 2018 has led to the arrest of the co-founder of Los Angeles biotech Enochian Biosciences.

Serhat Gümrükcü and alleged co-conspirator Berk Eratay of Las Vegas were charged with conspiring to use interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire on May 25.

The arrests raise the total number of suspects in the case to four, following the arrests of co-defendants Aron Lee Ethridge and Jerry Banks on kidnapping charges in April 2022.

Banks is suspected of kidnapping Gregory Davis from his Danville home on January 6, 2018, and murdering him, according to the Department of Justice. A day later, his body was discovered in a snowbank some miles from his home, but the motive for his killing remains unknown.

Gümrükcü is an expert in stem cell gene expression analysis and has been researching strategies to give stem cell transplants to cancer patients without the use of high-dose induction chemotherapy, which destroys the patient’s bone marrow.

He’s also the head of translational research at the Seraph Research Institute in Los Angeles, where he runs a group focused on developing novel techniques for treating viral infections including COVID-19 and HIV.