Posted: May 24, 2018
Funding by the Jeanne and Charles Rider Endowment to Dr. Seogchan Kang, professor of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology, and Dr. Josephine Wee, assistant professor of Food Science, will support their project entitled “Chemical ecology-based control of mycotoxin contamination in food/feed crops”.
Image: Josephine Wee
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - 4.5 billion people living in developing countries may be chronically exposed to mycotoxins, toxic fungal metabolites, through their diet. Funding by the Jeanne and Charles Rider Endowment to Dr. Seogchan Kang, professor of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology, and Dr. Josephine Wee, assistant professor of Food Science, will support their project entitled "Chemical ecology-based control of mycotoxin contamination in food/feed crops". As stated on the College of Agricultural Sciences website, the endowment supports "College of Agricultural Sciences faculty in their biotechnology research and teaching programs that give promise of improving upon food crop production and quality while protecting the quality and safety of the environment." They will isolate and characterize bacteria and fungi that secrete metabolites blocking the synthesis of aflatoxins, carcinogens. Resulting resource will help mitigate this pervasive, yet often overlooked global threat to food safety and security and human health via metabolic engineering of crops and/or deployment of microbes and their metabolites in ways that effectively suppress aflatoxin production.
