Kovac Lab

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.

News

April 9, 2023

Tyler and Anna received 1st place poster awards at the Gamma Sigma Delta Research Expo

Our undergraduate student Anna Sarubbi was awarded the 1st place poster award in the Undergraduate Division, Food Systems area. Our PhD student Tyler Chandross-Cohen won the 1st place poster award in the Graduate Division, Microbiology and Microbiome Systems area. Congratulation!

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April 3, 2023

Jasna awarded the Penn State Global Early Career Faculty award

The Penn State Global Early Career Faculty Award recognizes innovative international research projects, excellence in global scholarship, or curricular and experiential leadership surrounding global learning for a tenure-earning faculty member at Penn State.

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March 17, 2023

Congratulations to Laura Rolon and Runan Yan for successfully defending their PhD dissertations!

Laura Rolon defended her dissertation titled "The role of environmental microbiota in the persistence of Listeria monocytogenes in food processing facilities" on February 16th, 2023 and Runan Yan defended her dissertation titled "The investigation of the effects of chicken meat microbiome on survivability and culturability of Campylobacter" on March 17, 2023. Congratulations!

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December 21, 2022

WE ARE... The Microbiome Center

We Are... the Microbiome Center is a new feature series that celebrates the people of the Center and the collaborative spirit we bring to “making life better” at the Center each day. Our PhD candidate Taejung Chung was highlighted in the inaugural issue of the feature series.

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