{"id":5335,"date":"2022-05-24T13:11:59","date_gmt":"2022-05-24T17:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/?p=5335"},"modified":"2024-05-17T12:50:53","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T16:50:53","slug":"newly-minted-toxicology-ph-d-looks-at-finding-new-antibiotics-for-foodborne-illnesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/featured\/newly-minted-toxicology-ph-d-looks-at-finding-new-antibiotics-for-foodborne-illnesses\/","title":{"rendered":"Newly minted toxicology Ph.D. looks at finding new antibiotics for foodborne illnesses"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jenifer Ossai received a doctorate in toxicology at UMES’ Spring 2022 Commencement<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Jenifer Ossai<\/strong> came to UMES in 2010 from Delta State in Nigeria, West Africa, with a full scholarship from the government to pursue a bachelor\u2019s degree in biology that she earned four years later.  On May 20, at the university\u2019s spring commencement exercises, she left campus with a doctoral degree in toxicology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 As a youth, Ossai loved problem solving.  Her interest in toxicology developed as she came across \u201can increasing number of disease cases, deaths and infections caused by foodborne bacteria, so I figured that I could develop a research project in this direction to add to the scientific knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her doctoral research and dissertation focused on the isolation of new antibiotics from soil actinomycetes to control diseases and infections caused by foodborne bacterial pathogens.  Actinomycetes, she said, are bacteria that can be isolated from territorial and marine environments known to produce most of the commercialized antibiotics such as tetracycline and ampicillin. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Jenifer Ossai researches new antibiotic agents from soil samples that could aid in illnesses from foodborne bacteria.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cCurrently, foodborne pathogenic bacteria are showing resistance to clinically used antibiotics.  These foodborne bacteria are responsible for most food-related illnesses and hospitalizations, therefore, finding new antibiotic agents is highly needed,\u201d Ossai said.  \u201cFor my project, we were able to apply advanced molecular and chemical techniques in isolation and identified antibiotic agents from soil samples that could control the growth of pathogenic bacterial and fungi.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 At UMES, Ossai\u2019s classroom and lab experiences \u201cprepared me for a career in toxicology, because I was exposed to different areas of research and learned different skills.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gail Stephens, Agricultural Communications and Media Associate, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences, UMES Extension, gcstephens@umes.edu<\/a>, 410-621-3850.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photos by Todd Dudek, Agricultural Communications, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences, UMES Extension, tdudek@umes.edu<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jenifer Ossai came to UMES in 2010 from Delta State in Nigeria, West Africa, with a full scholarship from the government to pursue a bachelor\u2019s degree in biology that she earned four years later.  On May 20, at the university\u2019s spring commencement exercises, she left campus with a doctoral degree in toxicology.   As a youth,…Read more Newly minted toxicology Ph.D. looks at finding new antibiotics for foodborne illnesses<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1168,"featured_media":5336,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":77,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77,72],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-5335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-may-2022"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5335"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=5335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}