Aim 3 Title:
Develop and conduct a multi-institutional undergraduate summer research program in food safety
Aim 3 Project Team:
Aim 3 team leader:
Martin Wiedmann, Cornell University; contact mw16@cornell.edu
Aim 3 team members:
Salam A. Ibrahim, North Carolina A&T State University; contact ibrah001@ncat.edu
Martha Verghese, Alabama A&M University; contact martha.verghese@aamu.edu
Angela J. Roberts, Texas Wesleyan University; contact anroberts@txwes.edu
Kendra Nightingale, Colorado State University; contact kendra.nightingale@colostate.edu
Haley Oliver, Purdue University; contact hfoliver@purdue.edu
Lee-Ann Jaykus, North Carolina State University; contact lajaykus@ncsu.edu
Martha Verghese, Alabama A&M University; contact martha.verghese@aamu.edu
Carmen Moraru, Cornell University; contact cim24@cornell.edu
Aim 3 Current Efforts:
While this component of the project is scheduled to start in 2012 (i.e., project year 2), pilot activities have been initiated at different participating institutions in 2011. Undergraduate students interested in conducting summer research in food safety in the summer of 2012 should contact Dr. Martin Wiedmann <mw16@cornell.edu> for further information or should check the WWW page for the Cornell Food Science Summer Scholars Program for details on how to apply to this summer program.
At North Carolina A&T SU, our food microbiology and safety laboratory is currently hosting one undergraduate research assistant to conduct research related to lactic acid fermentation using agricultural by-products as growth medium for the production of functional ingredients.
Aim 3 Completed Efforts:
Five undergraduate students with specific interests in food safety participating in the 2011 Cornell Summer Undergraduate Research Program, including one undergraduate student each from North Carolina A&T State University, Purdue University, UC Berkely, MIT, and Cornell.
Fritz Foo, an undergraduate majoring in Molecular Environmental Biology at UC Berkley, was a summer scholar in the Wiedmann lab at Cornell. His research focused on molecular and phenotypic characterization of Salmoenlla Enteritidis isolates obtained from human disesae outbreaks and cases.
Carmen Wickware, an undergraduate majoring in Food Science at Purdue University, was a summer scholar in the Worobo lab at Cornell. Her research focused on charactziation of Alicylobacillus isolates and their behaviour in juice and other beverages.
Jessica Wooten, an undergraduate majoring in Food and Nutritional Sciences at NC A&T State University, was a summer scholar in the Wiedmann lab at Cornell. Her research focused on phylogenetic analysis of shiga-toxin producing E. coli isolates from beef cattle farms and natural environments.
Jean Fang, an undergraduate majoring in Chemical-Biological Engineering at MIT, was a summer scholar in the Moraru lab at Cornell. Her research focused on the effects of nanoscale surface topography on the attachment behavior of Listeria innocua to alumina and silica substrates
Brittany Miller, an undergraduate majoring in Food Science at Cornell, was a summer scholar in the Moraru lab at Cornell. Her research focused on inactivation of E. coli in milk and concentrated milk using Pulsed light treatment.
Alani Adkins, an undergraduate majoring in Food Nutritional Sciences at NC A&T State University, was a summer scholar in the Ibrahim lab at NC A&T State University. Her research focused on the use lactic acid bacteria to control the growth of E. sakazakii and E. coli O157:H7.