Aim 3 - Develop a undergraduate summer research program in food safety

The 2013 Cornell Food Science Summer Scholars Program is now accepting applications and inquiries.  Undergraduate students interested in conducting summer research in food safety should check the Cornell Food Science Summer Scholars Program webpage for details on how to apply to this summer program or should contact Janette Robbins jmr65@cornell.edu or Dr. Martin Wiedmann mw16@cornell.edu for further information.  The application deadline is January 31st, 2013.  Details on the summer scholar program can also be found on The Foundation of the Institute for Food Technologists website.

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.   

Six undergraduate students with specific interests in food safety participated in the 2012 Cornell Summer Undergraduate Research Program, including one undergraduate student each from Michigan State University, The University of Arlington Texas, Jackson State University, Eastfield College, Alabama A&M University, and Truman State University.

Laura Carroll, an undergraduate majoring in Genomics and Molecular Genetics at Michigan State University, was a summer scholar in the Wiedmann lab at Cornell. Her research focused on expanding the path-dependent bacterial inactivation model for Salmonella in ground turkey described in Stasiewicz et al., 2007, by determining a function for τ that accurately describes cellular adaptation to stress from a physiological perspective.

Ola Esho, an undergraduate majoring in Biology at The University of Arlington Texas, was a summer scholar in the Nightingale lab at Texas Tech. Her research focused on characterizing 276 isolates of lymph nodes contribution from TX and NE to find an enhancin gene that is believed to help Salmonella attach to the midgut of insects.

Ana Brown, an undergraduate majoring in Biology at Jackson State University, was a summer scholar in the Wiedmann lab at Cornell. Her research focused on 1) using MLST (Multi-locus Sequence Typing) in order to genetically classify various isolates of L. mono and 2) the use of Nisin to inhibit the growth of L. mono bacteria on seafood at cold temperatures.

Laura Hill, an undergraduate majoring in Biology at Eastfield College, was a summer scholar in the Oliver lab at Purdue. Her research focused on Listeria monocytogenes adaptation to increasing concentrations of quaternary ammonium compounds when the concentration of disinfectant is below the value needed to kill it.

Breanna McArthur, an undergraduate majoring in Food Science at Alabama A&M University, was a summer scholar in the Worobo lab at Cornell.  Her research focused on the mode of action, heat stability, and pH stability of the bacteriocin Thurincin H.

Rachel Scott, an undergraduate majoring in Chemistry at Truman State University, was a summer scholar in the Moraru lab at Cornell.  Her research focused on understanding the extent to which the addition of κ-carrageenan to micellar casein concentrate stabilizes the mixture during heat treatment at sterilization temperature in a range of pH levels.

The food microbiology and safety laboratory at North Carolina A&T State University conducted a food safety and protection seminar on Wednesday April 11, 2012 in Carver Hall. This was part of the food safety activates.  The audience included undergraduate and graduate students in the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at North Carolina A&T State University.

The following gave presentations:

Rabin Gyawali:  Food Components

Mehrdad Tajkarimi:  New courses in food defense and safety

Saeed Hayek:  Introduction to Food Safety

Larriale Spruill: Basic understanding of food defense and protection

Marcella Cheek: Food Defense for Agricultural Commodities applying the CARVER + Shock Method

Five undergraduate students with specific interests in food safety participated 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.

Michelle Adams, an undergraduate majoring in Biology at Cornell University, was a summer scholar in the Worobo lab at Cornell.  Her research focused on bacteriocin resistance in Enterococcus mundtii.  E. mundtii produces bacteriocins that have the potential to significantly reduce the presence of pathogens, such as Listeria monocytogenes, in ready-to-eat foods.

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.

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 Salmonella Enteritidis isolates obtained from human disesae outbreaks and cases, with a focus on comparing growth trends and PFGE profiles.

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.  Brittany published her research in the Journal of Dairy Science in 2012!  Miller B.M., Sauer A., Moraru C.I. Inactivation of Escherichia coli in milk and concentrated milk using pulsed-light treatment. J Dairy Sci. 2012; 95(10):5597-603.

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 characterization of Alicylobacillus isolates and their behavior 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.  Shiga Toxin-Producing E. coli are bacterial pathogens that result in both outbreak and sporadic occurrences of human mortality and disease.  Shiga Toxin-Producing E. coli can cause hemorrhagic colitis and the life threatening hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) in humans.  E. coli 0157:H7 has been recognized as a major cause of hemorrhagic colitis and HUS but many non-O157 STEC can also cause these illnesses.  My project goals were 1) to examine STEC from beef cattle pastures and pristine environments to find differences in genes that could show how they are related; 2) to analyze soil and water from these environments to determine if they are reservoirs for E. coli; 3) to examine if genes are moving between environments.

Alani Adkins, an undergraduate majoring in Food Nutritional Sciences at NC A&T State University, was a summer scholar in the Ibrahim lab. Her research focused on the use lactic acid bacteria to control the growth of E. sakazakii and E. coli O157:H7.

Marcella Dyanne Cheek, an undergraduate majoring in Food and Nutritional Sciences at NC A&T State University, was a summer scholar in the Ibrahim lab. Her research is related to development of educational materials in the area of food defense and protection.

Three undergraduate students, majoring in Biology, participated in a pilot, five-week Food Safety Summer Scholars Program at Texas Wesleyan University during the summer of 2011.  The students worked under the mentorship of Dr. Angela Roberts.

Rebecca Mandujano, a senior Biology major, studied how effectively a recipe for homemade queso fresco kills Listeria monocytogenes during cheese preparation.

Truc Nguyen, a senior Biology major, used site-directed mutagenesis to probe the contribution of a premature stop codon in the flaR gene of Listeria monocytogenes on flagellar motility.   Truc's poster describing his research and entitled, "Rescue of the flaR gene in strain N1-003 of Listeria monocytogenes" won first place in the microbiology category at the 2012 Beta Beta Beta National Convention in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Lorena Ortiz, a senior Biology major, used cell culture to compare the intracellular growth rates of strains of Listeria monocytogenes isolated from human clinical cases of listeriosis.

Alabama A&M University hosted a food science summer program during 2011 for undergraduate students.  The program focused on all the different aspects of product development with special emphasis on food safety, development of HACCP plans, etc.  For more information contact Martha Verghese martha.verghese@aamu.edu.