BAE Graduate Student Creates a Cost-Effective Method of Detecting Antimicrobial-Resistant Bacteria
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EmailBAE Graduate Student Oznur Caliskan-Aydogan has worked to design and develop a rapid and cost-effective assay to detect antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in the food supply chain.
Protecting the food chain from farm to fork has been at the top of Oznur Caliskan-Aydogan's mind since she was a child. As a daughter of a farmer in the small village of Tokat in Turkey, her life inspired to get higher education in agriculture and food area. Then she completed a Bachelor of Science in Food Engineering at Erciyes University, Turkey.
Caliskan-Aydogan completed a master's degree in food safety and quality at the same university. During her master's program, she discovered a scholarship program to enable her to study in the U.S. for graduate work. She completed multiple interviews and was awarded a scholarship to come to the U.S. She started her other master's degree in food process engineering at the Pennsylvania State University.
During her master's studies, Caliskan-Aydogan worked on several projects including functional and antimicrobial properties of local fruits and their products, microbial decontamination methods and techniques to further enhance the safety of the food supplies, and utilizing physical properties of apples to predict the apple harvest time and quality changes. She discovered that the sensing systems are where her passion lies. She wanted to learn sensing systems, especially integrated with nanotechnology in microbial detection techniques. She sought out BAE Professor Evangelyn Alocilja, Ph.D., and Caliskan-Aydogan started her Ph.D. in Alocilja's lab, The Nano-Biosensors Lab, in Fall 2018.
Nanoparticle-based biosensors offer cost-effective, simple, and rapid for the early detection of pathogens, enhancing food safety and saving lives. Caliskan-Aydogan said.
According to the CDC, antibiotic resistance causes an estimated 742,000 antimicrobial-resistant infections yearly. Water sources and global food trade have the most direct relationship with ABR spreads, a significant concern for public health. Caliskan-Aydogan's goal in her research is to develop and design a rapid and cost-effective assay to detect antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in the food supply chain. This is achievable with nanoparticles (magnetic and gold nanoparticles), which are cheap and stable, and offers rapid and successful detection. Thus, the designed biosensors in the lab can assist in preventing and controlling future outbreaks.
After Caliskan-Aydogan completes her Ph.D., she will move back to Turkey and begin her academic career. These backgrounds and experiences gained in the USA have given her even more excitement to go further in contributing to and impacting the global, national, and local community. While in the U.S., Caliskan-Aydogan has seen the work extension does to bridge the gap between research and technology and the industry.
"Innovative research and investments should not only be as a published paper; we can reach collaborators in the industry to implement the developed techniques in real applications." said Caliskan-Aydogan. "Farmers and public training projects can increase the proper applications and raise awareness of food safety."
Public education is a core task of extension, and that is a key element to food safety. Government projects can provide information, but assistance from extension brings it to people's doors and gets them invested. Caliskan-Aydogan's work at MSU has provided her with tools and resources that will enable her to run a lab and conduct research in the areas of food safety while enhancing public education.
