USDA Orders IU to Lock Down Biology Labs

Indiana University Bloomington closed access to several biology labs on Thursday evening following orders from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to secure the spaces, according to multiple reports.

The labs are directed by Roger Innes, a microbiologist who has criticized the government’s recent persecution of Chinese scientists and accused it of generating “anti-Chinese hysteria.”

In an email to the biology department on Friday morning, IU Vice President for Research Russ Mumper said IU was “notified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that they will be engaging in activity in a laboratory associated with the biology department.”

“We recognize the significant disruption this has caused for the department and your research, and are committed to minimizing any inconvenience,” Mumper wrote. “We sincerely appreciate your patience and professionalism as we work as quickly as humanly possible to resolve the situation and minimize further disruption.”

The lab is where IU post-doctoral researcher Youhuang Xiang carried out USDA-sponsored research on crop resistance to fungal diseases. Last month Xiang pled guilty to secretly importing biological materials from China in 2024. The FBI has described Xiang as a “domestic threat,” but Innes has defended him, telling Indiana Public Media: “It’s perfectly legal to bring plasmid DNA into the country. There’s no health risk, no safety risk.”

According to Science, Innes was not notified before the university changed the locks. He says IU lawyers told him that the USDA ordered the school to “secure” his lab.

The FBI searched Innes’s lab last December in connection with the investigation of Xiang. In February it notified Innes that his lab “was in compliance,” but in April the USDA told him the earlier notice “was issued in error” and that his lab was still under review.