Expertise
- Bacteriology
- Foodborne Pathogens
- Vaccine
- Alternative Therapeutics
- Alternative Growth Promoters
RESEARCH FOCUS
- Reducing levels of these bacterial pathogens in food-producing animals and prevent the cross contamination in the food processing plants are effective ways to reduce food safety risks for humans.
- Reduction of pre- and post-harvest levels of colonization and contamination with foodborne bacterial pathogens including E. coli 0157, Campylobacter jejuni and Salmonella enterica in foods specifically meat and meat products and development of vaccines that prevent colonization of animals by these enteric pathogens which may reduce human gastrointestinal infections.
- Investigation the role of natural products in control of colonization of zoonotic/foodborne bacterial pathogens in animal guts and mechanisms of their antimicrobial activity/survival ability in the presence of synthetic antibiotics and/or natural antimicrobial components.
- Development of bioactive pre-biotics, probiotics, and/or its combination (synbitics) for alternative source of therapeutic and sub-therapeutic (growth promoter) components for organic and conventional farm animal production and stimulate the growth probiotic and the production of its metabolites by genetically engineered beneficial bacteria.
- Develop the efficient and faster technology to improve the detection of foodborne enteric bacterial pathogens in food products and other polluted materials.
Dr. Debabrata Biswas is a Professor of Food Safety in the Department of Animal and Avian Sciences, and the Center for Food Safety and Security Systems (CFS3) at the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Biswas is a bacteriologist and has committed to develop crosscutting research programs in food safety area. In recent years, he has initiated several research projects on bacteriology specifically host-foodborne bacteria interactions with the researchers from Food Science, Biological Engineering, Plant, and Animal Sciences. To achieve the goal, his research areas target to control of enteric bacterial pathogens including Salmonella, enterohemorrhagic E. coli (0157:H7), Listeria monocytogenes and Campylobacter jejuni in foods and their colonization in animal reservoirs. His research also investigates the role of natural organic products in control of foodborne bacterial colonization in animals and mechanism of antimicrobial activity of these components.
