People exit the Peoria Ag Lab in 2023. The Ag Lab is where penicillin was refined for mass distribution during World War II. (T Alexander photo)

PEORIA – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, known to locals as the Peoria “Ag Lab,” is renowned for employing the scientists who refined penicillin for mass distribution during World War II.

Originally constructed in the late 1930s as one of four regional USDA Agricultural Research Service centers, NCAUR is once again under the microscope. Republican congressional budget hawks, buoyed by the new U.S. Department of Governmental Efficiency and President Donald Trump’s executive order to slash the federal budget, are seeking cost-cutting moves.

Area news media reported last month that around 19 “probationary,” union-supported researchers and employees would be terminated under DOGE-led cuts.

On Feb. 18, Steve Cermak, research leader of the Bio-Oils Research Unit for NCAUR, welcomed several dozen Greater Peoria AgTech Connect participants to the Ag Lab, which is located at 1815 N. University St. in Peoria.

“We have about 175 highly educated people (working at NCAUR) and about 70 to 75 of those are PhD scientists. We have an annual operating budget of about $34 million. We also support numerous local and regional businesses,” Cermak informed the group from AgTech Connect, an affiliate of Peoria’s Distillery Labs that seeks to connect people, ideas and resources to launch and grow local businesses.

In addition to its four regional research labs (the others are in California, Louisiana and Pennsylvania), USDA operates 95 Agricultural Research Service-led facilities throughout the country. The ARS facilities are working on 600 research projects covering 50 national programs and employing 7,000 workers, of which 2,000 are scientists. USDA’s annual budget is roughly $213 billion, of which just $1.7 billion is directed to ARS, according to Cermak.

“We (at NCAUR) are made up of several research units covering a wide range of areas, and we have had many successes,” said Cermak. “Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928 when he noticed mold growing in a Petri dish, but large-scale attempts to step up (production) failed at the time. Here in Peoria we worked on this problem for about a year until a mold substitute for large-scale production was found in a molded cantaloupe.

“Production was increased by nearly 1,000 times. D-Day in Europe was looming and the need for penicillin was desperate, so the cantaloupe strain was released to pharmaceutical companies in 1943. By D-Day in June of 1944, tens of thousands of doses were being produced each month. This is our biggest and most well-known achievement here at the Ag Lab.”

Cermak listed a number of notable NCAUR-led breakthroughs that have resulted in technology transfers for products used by consumers every day. Those achievements include Dextran (a blood plasma substitute developed in the 1950s), Xanthan Gum (a food additive; 1960s), super-absorbent polymers (materials that can absorb hundreds of times their weight in water; 1970s), low-fat food ingredients (1990s) and low-glycemic index sweeteners (2000s).

In addition, NCAUR scientists have developed a myriad of agricultural-based lubricants and oils, including oil from pennycress for use in sustainable aviation fuel, motor oil used in Las Vegas taxis and a soy-based fluid used in elevators at the Empire State Building. NCAUR scientists also collaborated with a private industry partner to develop a soy-based motor oil that has gained the endorsement of the American Petroleum Institute– the first bio-oil to achieve such accreditation.

Today, the primary focus of NCAUR’s research lies in seeking agricultural solutions for farmers and consumers.

“Our primary mission is to find solutions using agricultural products to fix a problem. For example, we are developing new oil seed crops, commercially-viable bio-based products, converting renewable ag products into higher-value materials and developing new, healthier food ingredients,” Cermak said. “We also are looking at developing new, inexpensive testing methods to detect mycotoxins.”

Finding new uses for industrial hemp has also been an area of study for NCAUR scientists and researchers since its legalization in Illinois and elsewhere.

“We’re looking at new analytical methods for looking at THC and other components of the seed, and we’re working with breeders to advance lines and develop products from those materials, mainly for bioplastics,” said Cermak.

According to U.S. Department of Agriculture analytics, for every dollar invested in the Peoria Ag Lab and other Agricultural Research Service facilities, the public receives a $20 return in economic impact. To determine the nature of the projects their scientists take on, ARS leaders draft and approve five-year project plans centered on issues key to agriculture. Local and regional entrepreneurs with ideas for products that solve agricultural problems are sometimes involved in the research on a collaborative basis when bringing a product to market.

Research units operating at Peoria’s NCAUR include Mycotoxin Prevention and Applied Microbiology Research, Bioenergy, Bio-oils, Crop Bioprotection Research, Functional Foods, Plant Polymer Research and Renewable Product Technology.