Dr. Luxin Wang, an assistant professor working for the Department of Food Science and Technology, was awarded the Grower’s Risk Assessment Biomarker Investigative Tool (GRABIT) Challenge Award on June 18th 2019 at the annual Center for Produce Safety research symposium in Austin TX.

The GRABIT Challenge Award is designed to recognize technology innovators and scientists who develop and refine their tools and solutions to meet critical produce industry needs. This year’s challenge award focuses on tools that can evaluate microbial food safety risks associated with animal-specialty crop interfaces. Dr. Wang and her collaborators (Dr. Michele Jay-Russell from the Western Center for Food Safety and Dr. Yucheng Feng from Auburn University) developed a Bacteroidales-based detection system that can better detect and characterize chronic and acute risk potentials associated with concentrated animal feeding operation and leafy green interfaces. This award also comes with a $30,000 grant for Dr. Wang’s research program.

Congratulations Dr. Wang!