A fire was set at the home of a University of California, Los Angeles, neuroscientist targeted by animal rights activists in the past.

The fire was caused by a device left on the house's front porch on Tuesday (Feb. 5), FBI officials told the Los Angeles Times. No one was home at the time the device ignited, and no one was hurt in the fire. UCLA addiction researcher Edythe London owns the house, which was flooded and vandalized last October by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF).

ALF has not claimed responsibility for this latest incident, but the FBI is investigating the group for its role in the October attack. London uses monkeys to study nicotine addiction and behavior and wrote in a November LA Times op-ed piece that "nothing could be more important than solving the mysteries of addiction and learning how we can restore a person's control over his or her own life. We must not allow these extremists to stop important research that advances the human condition."

UCLA chancellor Gene Block condemned the attack. "These kinds of deplorable tactics have no place in a civilized society," he told the LA Times.