Federal investigators wrapped up an investigation into an Indiana University plant biology lab that was launched after one of its researchers was charged and deported over imported biological material.
For nearly two weeks, the lab of Professor Roger Innes was closed so the U.S. Department of Agriculture could review the materials kept there. Several other connected labs and rooms were also impacted by the search. All labs have since reopened.
The labs were closed after a Chinese postdoctoral researcher, Youhuang Xiang, was prosecuted for smuggling plasmid DNA derived from E. coli bacteria into the country.
The USDA was checking whether Innes’s lab had the needed permits for the materials and pathogens with which he and his researchers work.
The USDA did not identify any federal violations during its inspection, Innes said, but rather corrected some deficiencies. Innes said the USDA destroyed some materials for which they didn’t have third-party verification of what it was or where it came from. He also said they identified some fungi with lapsed permits that needed to be destroyed, too.
A USDA spokesperson told IndyStar in a statement that the investigation is still active and cannot provide more details
Russell Mumper, IU’s vice president for research, said the federal investigation wrapped up earlier than expected, according to a Tuesday email to faculty. He thanked the department for its collaboration through “this challenging period.”
“By working together with you and your colleagues, we did our best to navigate this disruption and minimize the impact on researchers, while meeting our federal compliance obligations,” his email reads.
Several projects that were months in development now need to be repeated, Innes said, because they required growing plants to a certain age. He described the investigation as unnecessary and a waste of taxpayer dollars.
Innes believes his advocacy for Xiang triggered the USDA’s search. He learned it was highly unusual for the USDA to search and investigate an academic lab, which he said is further proof that this is targeted.
“There’s no doubt,” he said. “This is definitely, in my opinion, harassment of my lab as retribution for how I’ve been speaking out previously.”
Federal authorities have previously searched Innes’s lab and questioned him after Xiang was detained in November. Xiang worked under Innes on a wheat resilience project supported with a $1.2 million grant.
Xiang pleaded guilty in April to smuggling plasmid DNA into the country. James Tunick, his defense attorney, said the charge amounts to importing materials, which are widely considered harmless, without an invoice, one of the lowest-level charges under federal sentencing guidelines.
His case is one of several instances where federal authorities have investigated, charged and deported Chinese academics for what critics claim are low-level technicalities and part of a resurging politicized hysteria about China and national security.
Government officials, however, have touted the arrests as a matter of national security and have said the researchers who have been charged are dangerous.
Though this investigation is closed, Innes is cautious moving forward. He believes there is a network of people close to him and his lab that are now under close watch. He’s decided not to travel outside the country and cancelled an upcoming trip to Copenhagen.
One of his international colleagues legally mailed him seeds years ago that the FBI took in a recent search of his lab. When she tried to enter the country two weeks ago for a seminar, he said she was stopped, interrogated about her relationship to Innes and kept in a cell for 15 hours. She was not allowed to enter the country and flew home.
“I was shocked that they stopped her,” he said. “That frankly shook me up when I learned that.”
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Lab of deported IU Chinese researcher reopens after federal investigation
Reporting by Cate Charron, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
