In the News

June 1-October 26, 2007 - USDA Farmers Market

September 26, 2007 - Beltsville Area: Celebration of Excellence 

ANRI Honorees for the 2007 BA Awards - Congratulations ANRI Winners!

Nanoparticle Based Identification of Food Pathogens - ISL & FTSL

The development of rapid and routine identification methods for food borne bacteria is of considerable importance due to concerns regarding bio/agro-terrorism, public health, and economic loss.  The traditional techniques are time consuming and are not sufficiently rapid to assure the safety of read-to eat products.  Recently developed biosensors for rapid and specific detection of bacteria tend to have time requirements and rates of false negatives/positives that limit their usefulness for rapid screening of bacteria.  Fast microbial detection requires minimal sample preparation, permits the routine analysis of large numbers of samples with negligible reagent costs, and must be easy to operate.  Researchers our own Instrumentation and Sensing Laboratory, in collaboration with scientists at our own Food Technology and Safety Laboratory, have developed silver colloidal nanoparticle based surface-enhanced Raman scattering  spectroscopy as a potential lable-free tool for the rapid, simultaneous, qualitative, and routine screening of Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, and Salmonella typhimonium at a large scale.  This method has several outstanding merits:  (1) silver nanoparticle colloids are easy and inexpensive to prepare and their lifetime has been found to be much longer than that of vacuum-deposited nanoparticle films, (2) incubated bacterial cultures are directly mixed with silver colloids in tubes, requiring no other procedures and reducing the likelihood of cross-contamination, (3) exclusive bands based simple algorithms are more useful in determining bacterial species, and (4) data collection and interpretation can be completed in timeframes as short as 5 minutes.  For more information, contact Dr. Kevin Chao at Kevin.Chao@ars.usda.gov

John W. Kennedy Consultants, Inc. has requested the assitance of Dr. Neil Talbot, Research Animal Scientist, in our own Biotechnology and Germplasm Laboratory, in a project to test the effects of space flight the early development of bovine embryos.  Dr. Talbot will ac as a preflight and post-flight consultant to the project in the preparation of bovine embryos after their return to Earth.  Bovine zygotes and culture materials will be provided by BoMed, Inc., Madison, WI, and Dr. Peter Hansen, University of Florida, Animal Sciences Department, Gainesville, FL.  In flight incubation and culture robotics equipment will be provided by Astrotech Space Operations, Titusville, FL.  The propossed flight time is August 2007.

Dr. Hyun Lillehoj, Research Immunologist in our Animal and Parasitic Diseases Laboratory, has been selected to receive the first Embrex Fundamental Science Award at the upcoming Poultry Science Association meeting to be held in San Antonio, Texas.  This award was established last year by Embrex, Inc (now Pfizer).  The Embrex Fundamental Science Award recognizes outstanding achievement in basic disciplines (genetics, genomics, immunology, molecular, cellular, and developmental biology, physiology, poultry health, and proteomics).

A long-felt need to have comprehensive information on the genetic improvement of tomato in one place has come to fruition with the publication of a 637-page book on Genetic Improvement of Solanaceous Crops, Volume 2: Tomato, which has been co-edited by Dr. Autar Mattoo and Dr. M.K. Razdan, University of Delhi, India. This book has been published by Science Publishers, Enfield, NH, 2007 (ISBN: 978-1-57808-179-0).  Dr. Mattoo is a Plant Physiologist within ANRI's own Sustainable Agricultural Systems Laboratory, he can be contacted at: Autar.Mattoo@ars.usda.gov

The Annual BARC Poster Day was held all day at the National Visitors Center.  Over 50 posters from newly hired and post doctoral scientists were on exhibit.  Additionally, students from Eleanor Roosevelt High School presented posters on research being performed with BARC mentors.  The student presentations are supported by FAR-B (Friends of Agricultural Research - Beltsville).  FAR-B is a non-profit organization dedicated to promote research, educational and outreach programs.  For more information, contact Ron Korcak, Associate Director, at Ron.Korcak@ars.usda.gov.

For more information see the flyer: click here

Special Congratulations to Cathryn Simon, a student working with Cathleen J. Hapeman in the Environmental Mangement and Byproducts Utilization Laboratory, for winning 2nd prize in the BARC Poster Day's Student Poster Contest.

The year old Beaverdam Creek Watershed Group (BCWWG, http://www.beaverdamcreek.org/) based in Greenbelt, Maryland, bagged up about 1,000 pounds of trash on Saturday, February 24, 2007.  George Meyers, a member of BARC's Research Support Services unit, assisted with the trash removal.  The trash was collected from the roadside along Sunnyside Avenue at Indian Creek.  Also Prince George's County Public Works removed mattresses and lumber.  BARC would like to extend a big "thank you" to all of those who helped on this worthwhile project.  Glenn Welch, Chair for BARC's Ecology Commitee co-organized the cleanup.  For more information, contact Glenn at Glenn@anri.barc.usda.gov.

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