Cooper Laboratory

The Cooper laboratory focuses on the genomics, epidemiology and pathogenesis of foodborne pathogens.

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Craig Laboratory

The Craig Lab investigates how chemicals in our daily lives interact with the female reproductive system to help reduce the incidence of female infertility and improve women’s health.

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Dhar Laboratory

The Aquaculture Pathology Laboratory’s missions are to provide services (disease diagnostic, quarantine and therapeutic evaluation) to the shrimp industry worldwide; conduct training on shrimp disease diagnostics; and carry out basic research in discovering disease etiology, developing diagnostic tools and understanding the molecular basis of microbial pathogenesis in shrimp.

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Duca Laboratory

Our lab is interested in the role of the gut-brain axis in the development of obesity and diabetes. We are interested in how dietary and environmental changes, along with shifts in the gut microbiome, alter the ability of the gastrointestinal tract and the brain to regulate glucose and energy homeostasis.

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Goyal Laboratory

The primary interest of my research group is to study epigenetic regulation of vasculogenesis and angiogenesis with organismal development and in pathological conditions. Currently, our group is researching the developmental origin of health and disease with emphasis on fetal programming of metabolic syndrome, cancer, and neurological impairments. Other projects include the development of gene therapy to convert adipose-derived stem cells in insulin-secreting cells as well as developing a suicide gene therapy to target cancer cells.

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Limesand Laboratory

Fetal growth restriction contributes to major medical problems in the fetus, newborn, and even the adult, which is highlighted by a higher incidence of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity. We are investigating the early life risk factors that permanently impair insulin secretion and insulin action in the growth restricted fetus.

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Lopez Laboratory

Our research focuses on environmental microbiology and food safety. Specifically, determining the occurrence and prevalence of waterborne and foodborne pathogens such as Cyclospora cayetanensis, Noroviruses, Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria monocytogenes using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) molecular methods in order to help reduce the risk of foodborne outbreaks.

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McCarthy Laboratory

Biologists now have the ability to rapidly generate enormous amounts of genomics data but face a major bottleneck in applying this data to produce gains for society and the environment. Our goal is to provide tools, resources, and training that enables researchers to effectively analyze and model their ‘omics’ data. We combine biological information with bioinformatic expertise to provide annotated genomic data, computational tools and resources, and support for researchers to apply genomics to their area of interest. While our research typically focuses on livestock species and their pathogens, the resources we develop are designed to be extensible to a broad range of species.

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Ravishankar Laboratory

The Ravishankar laboratory specializes in conducting food safety research to understand foodborne pathogen prevalence in food production environments and testing practical solutions to 1) reduce foodborne pathogens in foods, 2) increase the shelf-life of foods, and 3) repurpose food, with an emphasis on natural products for the food industry, in order to provide safe and wholesome foods for consumers.

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Renquist Laboratory

Our research addresses the causes and consequent diseases of obesity, while applying this research to improve animal agriculture. We specifically conduct research on pathophysiologies of obesity (diabetes, hypertension, asthma and cancer) and body weight regulation (control of food/feed intake and energy expenditure).

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Riggs Laboratory

The immunobiology and molecular pathogenesis of bovine and human cryptosporidiosis, a diarrheal disease caused by the parasitic protozoan parasite Cryptosporidium spp. Vaccine and immunotherapeutic development, new drug discovery for control of this parasite.

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Stock Laboratory

Our lab investigates host-bacteria symbioses with focus on the dual lifestyle entomopathogenic nematode bacteria and their eukaryotic hosts (nematodes and insects). Major focus areas are: (a) the extent of symbiont specialization, (b) i bacterial traits contributing to host fitness and competitiveness and (c) the molecular basis of symbiont selection during transmission and colonization of their hosts.

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Van Doorslaer Laboratory

Our lab studies the arms-race raging between cancer-causing viruses and their animal hosts. Specifically, we want to understand how the virus evolved to usurp the cellular machinery and how this causes cancer.

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Vedantam Laboratory

Healthcare-associated infections are a serious, and life-threatening problem worldwide. One of the most virulent pathogens involved is Clostridioides difficile (aka "CDiff"); this bacterium also infects agriculturally-relevant animals. Our laboratory studies the molecular pathogenesis of C. difficile infection (CDI), and translates our findings into non-antibiotic interventions to prevent/treat CDI in human and non-human populations. We use hospital infection surveillance, genomics, proteomics, genetics and in vivo models to guide our studies.

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Viswanathan Laboratory

Our research focuses on understanding the impact of enteric pathogen virulence factors on intestinal epithelial cell function, and leveraging this knowledge to develop novel ways to mitigate infectious diseases.

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Wulf Laboratory

Our research focuses on improving meat production and meat quality using methodologies that don’t require excess fat production therefore resulting in lower environmental impact and improved human health. Specific research topics include: (a) Early postmortem glycolysis and pH decline effects on meat quality, (b) Methods of improving meat quality antemortem and postmortem, (c) Utilization of low value meat products, and (d) Direct marketing of locally-produced beef.

Zhou Laboratory

Our lab focuses on the molecular mechanisms underlying the fetal sex-specific dysregulation of fetal endothelial function in complicated pregnancies, and the maternal obesity-associated fetal endothelial dysfunction and future health risks of the offspring utilizing multiple model systems including human placenta tissue, human cell models, and in vivo animal models.

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