MnDRIVE, Drives VBS Research
March 11, 2022
MnDRIVE—Minnesota’s Discovery, Research, and InnoVation Economy, is a partnership between the University of Minnesota and the State of Minnesota that aligns areas of research strength with the state’s key and emerging industries to address grand challenges. The primary MnDRIVE research areas include Robotics, Global Food Ventures, Environment, Brain Conditions, and Cancer Clinical Trials.
The Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences (VBS) also has a role to play in recruiting faculty and researchers into this world-class research initiative that has direct relevance to residents and industries of Minnesota. Current VBS MnDRIVE affiliates with the ‘Global Food Ventures’ initiative include:
Tim Johnson, Ph.D.
Dr. Tim Johnson's expertise centers around poultry microbiology, bacterial pathogen ecology, and bacterial genomics. His research has the primary goal of protecting poultry health and sustaining our healthy food supply. Tim strives to enhance poultry health through a better understanding of the microbiota of the bird, the ecology of pathogens, and the efficacy of antimicrobial alternatives. He also aims to understand the ecology and evolution of foodborne pathogens, primarily Salmonella, towards mitigating them on farm and preventing human illnesses.
Current Projects: Developing University-industry partnerships, including founding the Poultry Certificate Training Program, which is the only program of its kind in the US, and is unique in its focus on combining basic poultry science with emerging molecular training for poultry professionals.
- Johnson has a USDA-funded project with Dr. Randy Singer to study the ecology and evolution of Escherichia coli that cause disease in poultry. Johnson has recently found that the pathotype that causes this disease - avian pathogenic E. coli or APEC - is more complex than previously thought. He is in the process of re-defining the APEC pathotype. His team is also studying how vaccines impact APEC ecology on farm.
- Johnson has a second USDA-funded project studying the landscape of outbreak strains of Salmonella in poultry, described here. His team is working to develop tools that can be used to identify high-risk Salmonella strains on farms, before they cause substantial human disease.
- Johnson has been working on the development of poultry probiotics for several years. He is currently working with several industry partners on a start-up company to produce host-adapted probiotics.
Research Goals: Dr. Johnson's primary research goal is to investigate the cause and effect of Salmonella and avian E. coli, and develop tools needed for the poultry industry to enhance Salmonella and avian E. coli surveillance techniques.
Kevin Lang, Ph.D.
Dr. Kevin Lang is focused on understanding how core biological processes, such as DNA replication, transcription, and translation, are affected during interactions between human cells and foodborne pathogens. His lab uses a multi-disciplinary approach including genetics, biochemistry, cell biology, proteomics, and genomics to answer fundamental questions about the biology of living cells.
Current Projects:
- Determining the molecular mechanisms of evolution of food-borne pathogens
- Human DNA Replication fork remodeling during infection by bacterial pathogens
Research Goals: The goal of the Lang Lab is to understand the mechanisms that maintain genome integrity, and how they contribute to the evolution of hosts, pathogens, and their interactions.
Byeonghwa Jeon, Ph. D.
Dr. Byeonghwa Jeon’s research revolves around food safety and antibiotic resistance. Jeon explains, "We are trying to improve microbial food safety by understanding bacterial tolerance to stress conditions present in food production, processing, distribution, and preservation. About antibiotic resistance, we are interested in elucidating how bacterial physiology affects the development of resistance and tolerance to antibiotics. Also, we are developing antibiotic potentiators with food-grade materials to control antibiotic-resistant pathogens using existing drugs."
Current Projects:
- Mechanisms for aerotolerance in Campylobacter
- Biofilm formation of Listeria monocytogenes
- Development of antibiotic potentiators using food-grade materials
Research Goals: Dr. Jeon's primary research goal is to address public health issues of food safety and antibiotic resistance by translating basic microbiological research into the development of novel intervention measures.