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<OL><LI>To prepare students for a career in food safety through integration of molecular food safety research, education, and outreach;<LI>To train and mentor underrepresented students in Molecular Food Safety; <LI>Developing 3-credit hour courses to address different aspects of contemporary molecular food safety education; <LI>To develop project-based learning activities including internships at federal food safety research labs at the USDA-ARS and in industrial projects (in processing or diagnostic companies), and to expand collaborative linkages and partnerships with other universities; <LI>To develop summer laboratory and experimental learning activities for high school students and teachers.
Non-Technical Summary: This project aims to strengthen the existing food science graduate curriculum at Alabama A&M University (AAMU). There is immediate need for sufficient representation of minority students in building a strong nationwide food safety research and education system, and eventually cater to the need of highly-skilled workforce generation in this field. Therefore the proposed project will focus on the long-term goal of establishing a molecular food safety research, education, and outreach program at AAMU in collaboration with USDA-ARS, other major land-grant universities, and industries. This Grant and related university resources will help to strengthen the FS graduate program at AAMU. The proposed initiative will address and adopt some important attributes of modern food safety education, and is based on the "education through research" concept. This initiative will build an advanced food safety research program within the FS graduate program at AAMU, focusing on molecular food safety laboratory-based research and teaching activities. <P> Approach: The proposed project aims to address some critical aspects of modern food safety research and education where the underrepresented students will receive training in (1) conducting rapid diagnostic research utilizing different culture-based, biochemical, immunochemical, nucleic acid based and biosensor-based rapid detection and identification techniques for foodborne pathogens (selected organisms, E. coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella); (2) comprehensive bacterial strain characterization capabilities including molecular typing research (PCR based and PFGE) by integrating strain characterization using serotyping methods with nucleic acid based methods under the mentorship of the PD/Co-PD and in collaborative federal and leading food safety laboratories across the nation; (3) the project will train next generation students through dissemination of tangible knowledge generated by up to date food safety research by developing innovative an curriculum to address different aspects of food safety education; and, (4) the proposal aims to develop project-based learning activities by exposing students to research experiences in leading food safety laboratories across the nation. The project will create awareness about the existing resources that AAMU can offer to make a bright future career path for budding minority students attending high schools by conducting summer workshops for high school students and teachers. Once these capacities are acquired, the program will continue to evolve and is expected to produce high caliber food safety experts in the coming years.