The focus of my research at York College, carried out in collaboration with the FDA, is the development of highly sensitive methods for the identification of pathogens in environmental samples Bacteria present in the environment are a source of many food-borne disease outbreaks. Detection of pathogen contamination in our food and water supply, as a result of natural events or terrorist actions, is essential to minimize morbidity and deaths. In addition, the agricultural industry benefits from improvements in the control of food processing.

My present studies seek to establish rapid real time quantitative PCR-based tests for the simultaneous determination of multiple pathogenic bacteria. Using pure preparations of bacterial DNA as templates, the first step, under progress, is the development of an extended family of primers consisting of sensitivity-matched dual primers sets for each bacterium.