The mold strain that made the Peoria Ag Lab internationally famous is now the official Illinois State Microbe.
As it turns out, Penicillium rubens' journey to statewide status began with public radio.
Peoria Ag Lab scientist Gary Kuzniar was driving home from his job one day in 2018 when he heard a story on WCBU about states designating official microbes.
"I thought that, hey, you know, Peoria hasn't really recognized this real important thing that was done here for a while, and I thought that I'd try to go for something like that," Kuzniar said.
Kuzniar and Neal Price created the Illinois State Microbe Designation Project soon there after.
For Kuzniar, the mold strain discovered in Peoria which led to the mass production of antibiotics in the 1940s was worthy of such recognition.
"The production of penicillium for World War II was just as great as the research on the atomic bomb," Kuzniar said. "Because in World War I, at least a third of the soldiers died of gangrene. So they were trying to find a way to alleviate that disease."
Kuzniar and the State Microbe Designation Project were successful. The governor signed a bill naming the new state microbe last month.
"There's several things that fell into place here that were just really unbelievable," he said.
Kuzniar says the State Microbe project is now planning out Penicillium rubens educational activities.
Editor's note: Penicillium rubens is a mold strain, not a bacteria strain. We have updated the story accordingly.
