Alex will be working on projects associated with tracking pathogen contamination on produce.
Samantha’s research is leveraging computational and modeling tools for the development of intervention strategies to mitigate microbial food safety hazards in pre-harvest and post-harvest environments.
Catharine is evaluating the performance of AOAC approved rapid Salmonella detection kits under challenging conditions. Additionally, she is also looking at the growth characteristics of all Listeria, including newly classified species, in standard reference method culture medias.
Ruixi is investigating the effect of pre-growth condition and genetic variation of Listeria monocytogenes on the antimicrobial activity of nisin in cold-smoked salmon. He is also working on the validation of such effects at low inoculum levels, and the identification of L. monocytogenes genes important for resistance to nisin and survival in cold-smoked salmon.
Alexa is working on a project to analyze the transcriptome of three different serovars of nontyphoidal Salmonella in order to understand strains in the context of infectivity and host interactions.
Sophia's project evaluates produce-relevant pathogens as well as surrogates, indicators, and index strains for different phenotypic characteristics to help with selection of strains and growth conditions for challenge studies and evaluation of interventions.
Samantha's research focuses on improving the quality of products in the dairy industry, specifically by developing probabilistic modeling tools to describe the microbial dynamics of bacteria associated with post pasteurization contamination in fluid milk.
Tim is investigating the effectiveness of on-farm interventions for reducing spore forming bacteria in bulk tank raw milk. He is also evaluating the efficacy of different pasteurization parameters and storage temperatures for extending the shelf-life of fluid milk in absence of post-pasteurization contamination.
Sam is working with New York State dairy plants to detect and characterize the bacteria in their milk responsible for post-pasteurization contamination and spoilage. His project's goal is to implement corrective actions at the plant level that will improve the quality and shelf-life of fluid milk by reducing the instance of post-pasteurization contamination.