Our lab aims to understand the free radical chemistry of foods as is relates to oxidative stability, quality, and biological activity/consequences. A major focus of the lab is to train the next generation of food chemists for industry and academia. We strive to create an environment that fosters collaboration, peer learning, and intellectual growth as the best means to achieve our professional goals.
Our research at Penn State is focused on precision food safety. We are integrating (meta)genomic and phenotypic methods to better understand how microbial genetic background and environmental factors influence epidemiology, pathogenic potential and antimicrobial resistance of foodborne pathogens.
Our research at Penn State is focused on food-associated fungi. Our team uses interdisciplinary approaches spanning microbiology, molecular biology, and nutritional immunology to understand fungal genotype-phenotype interactions. Currently, our projects span biocontrol strategies to reduce aflatoxin contamination, fermentation technologies to improve food quality and safety, and the development of novel fungal foods and biomaterials to advance sustainability.
