Overview
- Indiana University closed access to six Myers Hall rooms on Thursday after the U.S. Department of Agriculture directed the school to secure the spaces, and campus police changed the locks.
- IU said federal authorities are leading the action, it is cooperating as required, and it will tell faculty and staff when they may return.
- Rooms 302, 319, 309, 315, 316, and 062 are shut, with at least one belonging to Professor Roger Innes, whose lab drew federal scrutiny in a smuggling probe.
- In April, postdoctoral researcher Youhuang Xiang pleaded guilty to bringing E. coli‑derived DNA into the U.S. from China, and he conducted USDA‑funded research on crop disease resistance in the lab.
- The FBI searched Innes’s lab in December, told him in February it was in compliance, and the USDA said in April that notice was issued in error and that the lab remained under review.