Saying Goodbye/America Is A Cheater

Today was my last day in Kentucky and I went out to celebrate (in a bittersweet way) with Dr. O'Leary, Dr. Newman and Kabby. We spent the majority of the time listening to Dr. O'Leary talk about America's immoral tendencies--specifically how they affected food import and export--all because Kabby ordered a salad with Parmesan cheese (which, I later found out, is the name given to Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese imitators). I had no idea what he was talking about, so he explained something called the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), which protects the names of regional foods under European Union law (for example, real champagne could only be produced within the Champagne region of France, however, the United States allows certain domestic producers to use the name champagne under limited circumstances). Apparently both Kabby and Dr. Newman had heard this all before, because they just smiled and said he probably only cared because he was Irish. All I know is that I'm really going to miss working with these people every day, because they're all completely awesome.

Hard Work (And Food)

This is the room that's used whenever focus groups come in for taste tests (usually for research done in the meat lab). Personally, I think the room looks pretty drab under your typical fluorescent light bulbs, but I like these red lights.

Also, I really don't think this lab would be able to function without Kabby. She was gone yesterday so instead of just growing our own bacteria cultures, Dr. O'Leary and I went to Kroger and bought a bunch of cabbage and cheddar cheese that had been aged for various amounts of time. When we got back to the lab we just spent a couple hours making sauerkraut (just add salt to the cabbage and let it sit for two weeks without air contact) and processing cheese (which is actually really simple: just add emulsifying salts to make the cheese smooth and a couple preservatives).

Cool Toys

This shows the high-pressure canning machine (left) and a butter churner (right) that are left over from when this was still used for dairy production (it wouldn't meet FDA regulations now--and according to Dr. O'Leary it probably never should have been allowed to pass an inspection because of the design of the drainage system).

Sheer Terror

We've officially started to work with actual milk and bacteria, but we're not adding any antimicrobials yet. Dr. O'Leary gave me several books that talked about pasteurization and cheese-making and everything else dairy. I learned that milk is actually the most regulated food in the entire United States, and that it must be heated to at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit to be considered safe. Since we want the bacteria to grow, we're only heating to around 140, which is actually harder than it might seem. That's mainly because it's hard to measure the temperature of each milk sample when they're heating at different rates and when there is a stirring rod moving through the bowl.

We're currently using three different strains of listeria in each milk sample, because that's one of the more problematic microbes for dairy products. I also want to mention Kabby Akers, one of the senior research technicians, because she's been making all of our cultures, and she'll also be plating each of our inoculated samples once we start using the antimicrobials so we can see if there is any inhibition.

Also, the reason this post is titled "Sheer Terror" is because today when we were running cold water through one of the mixers, the jacket exploded and I was soaked with water (which I guess was better than steam). It was definitely one of the scariest moments of my life.

The Food Systems Innovation Center Opens!

Angela Anandappa has been around all week again and this time she has a cameraman with her. They've been going around filming different professors and grad students speaking, and it's a little bit weird to see so many people in white lab coats because they usually aren't necessary; the only time I had to wear one is when I was in the protein chemistry lab.

The grand opening of the Food Systems Innovation Center was last night and it just didn't feel right seeing everybody in dresses and suits because I've never actually seen any of them in anything other than jeans. Anyway, it was a really nice event with several distinguished speakers (like the dean of the College of Agriculture) and we saw the video which was pretty good considering how little time was used to create it. It's also possible I'm a little biased because there's a short clip of me working down in the dairy lab.

I would like to mention that "The UK Food Systems Innovation Center provides technical services, marketing intelligence, business services and training components to aid in developing the food industry of Kentucky," according to the new website, and you should check it out at http://www.uky.edu/Ag/AnimalSciences/foodsci/FoodInnovationCenter.html

The Mixers

Each of the mixers have had a stainless steel jacket welded on. The mixers are used to heat up the milk and are actually very similar to pasteurization machines used in commercial dairies. The each have two spouts--one for water/steam to enter, and one to exit. The general idea is to have steam enter on the left-side where it then circles around and exits through the right. Dr. O'Leary explained to me that there are two basic kinds of fluid flow--laminar and turbulent (the more effective kind). These spouts on these two mixers are at different distances apart, and the mixer on the left actually heats up about 30% faster than the other because the angle the exit spout creates on the left mixer allows steam to exit more quickly so that hotter steam can enter. If you look closely you can see that the tubing on each of the spouts has been clamped to help keep it from falling off when the steam is at such a high pressure (earlier in the week we hadn't been using clamps and one of the tubes came off and sprayed us both with steam and hot water, which was not cool).

In addition to my e-mail finding duties, I've also started to work with Dr. Joe O'Leary, who's pretty awesome. We're working in the old dairy lab, and the most important machines we're using are actually modified electric mixers that you could find in any kitchen. Eventually we're going to be adding different bacteria cultures to milk (and cheese, but that'll be after I leave) along with known antimicrobials to determine if any growth inhibition is seen.

Before we actually start using the milk and bacteria I'm just using water in varying amounts to determine if there are any differences in heating times between the three mixers, and to figure out if there is an ideal volume of liquid that should be used.

Good Stuff

I ran into Angela Anandappa again yesterday, who's still working on the Food Systems Innovation Center, and this time she handed me a list with the names of over 1000 companies involved in food production in Kentucky. I'm supposed to be looking up the e-mail addresses for all of these companies because I guess the center has reached the point where it's ready to start recruiting people to check it out. Not so hard, except approximately half of these companies only have a partial address and many of them don't even have a listed phone number. I've also noticed that the companies that could probably benefit most from this center (like Poppy's Bakery and Anna Mary's Fried Pies) are usually the ones that have no website, no phone number and no e-mail address (that I can find). It's kind of disappointing because I'm very pro supporting small businesses, but it isn't easy.

Also, now's probably a good time to mention the Kentucky Proud Program (http://www.kyproud.com/). It's a pretty cool initiative from the Kentucky Department of Agriculture that's hopefully going to improve efforts to shop locally, which would lead to improved nutrition and according to the website it is "an investment in Kentucky's land, people and its future," which sounds pretty good to me. The website links to different Kentucky Proud restaurants, and there are lists of Kentucky Proud members and products. Obesity statistics in Kentucky are also posted, and apparently it's ranked 2nd in the United States for percentage of obese or overweight adults at 67.4%. Not good...

The People

I think one of my favorite things about this experience is the people and how entirely different everyone's background is. I'm definitely the youngest person here--everyone else is at least working on their master's degree, and some people have had a PhD for over 35 years! When I was first working with Jen I found out that her background was actually in nutrition and food technology, and she's actually representing Kentucky right now at the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) annual meeting and expo in Chicago, and in a few weeks she'll be attending a similar event in South Africa. When I was working with Jamie she told me that after she received her master's degree she got a job with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources where she did aquaculture (basically helping to conserve different fish populations by breeding them in a safe environment). When she realized she liked the work but not the environment she went back to school and ended up in protein chemistry, although she still does aquaculture because Dr. Youling Xiong (who's in charge of the protein chemistry lab) happens to have some experience in that area.

This coming week I'm going to start working with Dr. Joe O'Leary, originally from Ireland, who does most of his research with milk and other dairy products. Everybody that I've met here seems completely invested in what they're working on, and it feels amazing!

The Spectrophotometer!

The spectrophotometer. It looks pretty simple--and it could probably pass for a copier if you got rid of that mildly conspicuous box on top--but it's one of the greatest things about this lab.

Protein Chemistry

This week I've been working on making antibacterial protein casings that can eventually be used for sausage, cheese, etc. I didn't exactly mind making the different extracts and then adding them to the bacteria cultures, but I definitely like this job better. It's basically like cooking, which I love (there's a recipe and everything!). Most of the thinking goes into creating the recipe and determining how much glycerol should be used, figuring out how long the protein sheets should be heated, and deciding how much of the selected antimicrobial should be used, etc. After that things get pretty simple and although the process is slightly repetitive (we've used niacin as the antimicrobial for the past three days) it's better than waiting two hours for a spectrophotometer to do its job. I also feel like I'm moving on to the more practical stage of research because now we're only using compounds that are known to have antimicrobial properties, and now we're more focused on what concentrations of antimicrobial work best and on working out functional problems (for example, the niacin seemed to cause a hydrophobic reaction in the casing as it would curl up around the edges after it was placed on a piece of cheese). I also realized today that protein/wax coatings are commonly used on fruits and vegetables, which I never really though about before. Every day I work on this project I get a little more interested in keeping up with it. I'm becoming more aware of just how many different people and places could be affected and I love being a part of it.

Inside the Lab

One of the hoods that's only ever used for storage.

The only hood (out of three) that is actually used for research.

Meat!

Thursday morning I got to tour the Meat lab before I started working. At this point in the year the lab is usually void of animals because everything is being cleaned, and this year, as a result of the grant, renovations are going on. All the equipment is still there, however, and it was interesting to see (in a dark sort of way). I saw the holding pens where animals were kept before they were slaughtered, and the killing floor where it all took place. There were two different pens (one for cows and the other for pigs, sheep and goats) where the animals were shot (cows) or shocked (pigs, sheep, goats) and then their blood was drained. After seeing all of that, I'm really glad that I'll never need to take a meat science class, because I don't think I could handle watching an actual slaughter. It was, however, interesting to hear about the various rules that were in place to ensure a humane slaughter. For example, if any animal were to fall on its way to be slaughtered, its meat could not be sold. In fact, the meat lab had recently invested $20,000 in a slip-proof floor after an incident a couple years ago. I also found out that although the holding room had a steel fence that was about eight feet high, some of the cattle had occasionally been known to jump up and get the front half of their body stuck on the fence. While I was there, Dr. Gregg Rentfrow talked about the kind of research they did, and it seems like it's mostly just changing what an animal eats and then determining how that affected the quality and flavor of the animal. So basically, whenever they slaughtered a pig, the people who worked in the meat lab got to take free bacon. He also told me that people worried more than they needed to about antibiotics in their meat because in order to be sold for general consumption, the cow was tested for signs of an infection before slaughter, and was tested for antibiotics afterward.

This morning I went on a tour of the UK hospital before I went into the lab. In an earlier post I mentioned possibly shadowing a doctor during the eight weeks I'm spending here, but I don't think that's going to happen since the hours I work are kind of irregular, and I want to be able to fully commit to what I'm doing.

I know I don't need to make all of my career decisions right now, but there are two options I'm really considering. The first, and the reason I'm here right now, is going into research. I love learning and being a student, and I think researching something I'm interested in would really facilitate that (it's like being a professional student without the loans!). If I do end up going that direction, I think experiences like this will help me figure out exactly what I want to study, and it also gives me a chance to see what kind of lifestyle research would entail. So far, I'm totally sold on the lifestyle aspect. When I was working with Jen she would arrange her schedule so that she would be able to see at least one of the World Cup games every day, and Dr. Newman actually owns cadaver dogs and volunteers with search and rescue. Actually, this week or next she's going up to Dayton, OH to respond to a simulated disaster, which is kind of incredible. The other career path I've been considering is osteopathic medicine, with an emphasis on public health. I used to think that medicine would require far more people skills than research, but now I'm starting to change my mind. In medicine I would be interacting with all different kinds of patients and other doctors and nurses, but I'm starting to understand that things aren't really all that different in research. All the departments need to work together to share their findings and their equipment, and most projects involve the cooperation of a lot of very qualified people with a lot of diverse interests. It's way more social than I ever expected, and I think the more important difference between the two is the lifestyle.

A Little Bit of Everything

Since I don't know very much about food microbiology, or microbiology in general, Dr. Newman is trying to have me work with several different people so I can develop my interests and get an idea of all the different possibilities there are in research. Today was actually the last day I'm going to work with Jen, and next week I'm going to be working with Jamie, who is also working on her PhD, except her research involves protein chemistry.

I guess now's a good time to mention one of Dr. Newman's favorite things about this project: the fact that these alternative antimicrobials can be used in so many different capacities. In a liquid form the extracts can be added to soups, salsas, milk/dairy products, etc. without any major changes. With the new grant money, the meat lab downstairs was able to purchase a machine that allowed researchers in the meat science department to use a technique called Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP), meaning that the different extracts could be vaporized and added to meat and fish in order to prevent and minimize contamination. For processed foods such as cheese and sausage that have a protein casing, modified (and still edible!) casings could be created that would include one or more of the natural antimicrobials (this is what I'll be working on with Jamie). Most important, of course, is that all of these processes can be adapted by commercial food producers and the benefits for consumers are major.

I also found out that there is another graduate student who is doing research similar to Jen's, with just one key difference. While both are testing various generally recognized as safe (GRAS)* compounds, one is using whole substances (such as garlic) and the other is using compounds that help make up these GRAS certified substances (such as allicin, an organosulfur compound that is extracted from garlic). It'll be interesting to see if there is any difference between the results. For now, the only benefit I can potentially see is that using just the effective compound from within a GRAS certified substance might minimize any change in flavor and/or texture because a smaller total amount of extract is used. At the same time I can also see how it might be less time-consuming to use the whole substance versus the individual extract.

*GRAS is an FDA designation that exempts a chemical or substance from being subjected to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act because it is generally considered safe by experts.

The Nutrigenomics Alliance

Today instead of going to the lab I went to a "Symposium on Nutritional and Epigenetic Interactions," and I'm not going to pretend that I actually know what that means. Anyway, Dr. Newman mentioned last week that four years ago UK had established an Animal Nutrigenomics Alliance with Alltech, a company that is headquartered in Lexington, but operates both locally and internationally. The company is focused on introducing technology into animal health research in a manner that's both efficient and sustainable, and in 2007 Alltech began its lecture series at UK. Today's symposium included three different lectures.

The first was "Omics Approaches for Epigenetic Analysis," given by Timothy Huang, Ph.D., from Ohio State University. He discussed how nutritional imbalances and exposure to environmental chemicals during early development may increase disease risk in adulthood, which I've heard before and I think that's easy enough to understand. However, his lecture focused more specifically on the mechanisms by which the disease risk was increased, such as through DNA methylation and histone modifications, which I've heard of but didn't quite understand. He also talked about how these changes are heritable, but genome-wide analysis could allow us to study epigenetic alterations and eventually fix or regulate these changes.

The second lecture was "Opportunities and Challenges for Using Nutrigenomics for Cancer Prevention," by John Milner, Ph.D., from the National Cancer Institute within the National Institutes of Health. He gave a description of the three elements of Nutrigenomics: nutrigenetics, epigenetics and transcriptomics, and explained how each affected the genotype and was then physically manifested. His lecture was by far the easiest to understand because he talked about the specific effects that insults such as excess calories, viruses, etc. had on cancer risk/tumor behavior. I think a lot of people have heard somewhere that excess red meat causes an increase in cholesterol levels and possibly an increased risk of certain cancers, so one of the things I found most interesting about his speech was that that was only true for about 5% of the population. However, there is not yet a way to determine who is at an increased risk of side effects from red meat until after the damage is already done, and because some of the effects are so serious, the entire public is warned of the dangers of red meat. (I also want to mention that Dr. Milner is a member of the Mushroom Research Board, because that just sounds really cool.)

The final lecture was "Maternal Nutrition and Programming of Fetal Development," by Thomas E. Spencer, Ph.D., from Texas A&M University. He talked about the effects of stressors during pregnancy during critical development periods--specifically inadequate nutrition--and how they can cause lifelong complications in the offspring, even if the stressors are only present for a short time. He focused on problems that were a result of genetic changes in the offspring of stressed mothers, and noted that those changes would be present in each successive generation as well (which makes it even more important to ensure good maternal nutrition/health and to identify therapies to ameliorate the negative consequences of developmental programming).

The Research (Part II)

We've mostly been using different spices for the extracts, so every morning Jen and I have been going to a food co-op to pick basically any pure spice we'd like (things like curry powder are out because they're made with several different ingredients so it's much harder to determine which one is responsible for inhibiting microbial growth). Spices with the most intense colors tend to bring the best results, so this morning, for example, we created extracts of chili powder, paprika and sweet basil. I've found that a lot of waiting is involved in this stage of the research, because once the extracts are made and added to the bacterial cultures, the growth inhibition is measured by a spectrophotometer which gives read-outs every two hours, and since each sample is given sixty hours to grow, the research seems to move pretty slowly. The spectrophotometer, however, is kind of awesome. The lab just purchased it with the grant money, and prior to its involvement all of the growth measurements had to be done individually, which was not even remotely exciting. Now that it's here we can skip that time-consuming step and move right to the comparisons between control groups (bacterial cultures with no added extract) and experimental groups (samples with an extract). I guess I should mention that each experimental group has both a garlic extract (a known antimicrobial) and another extract added (with unknown antimicrobial potential). This is done for two reasons: 1) the garlic extract is extremely pungent, so it's best if used in smaller quantities because very few people would want to eat cheese that smelled like garlic even if it was bacteria-free, and 2) because the antimicrobial potential of garlic is known, it's possible to determine how effective the additional extract is even when the two are combined, and it also saves time because you can see if the two extracts work better together than alone without having to run a second test.

Touring

This is a picture of the greenhouses that are a part of the plant diagnostics laboratory, which is just a parking lot away from the Garrigus building that I'm working in. I'm actually staying in Donovan Hall (one of many dorms) while I'm here, and it happens to right across from the greenhouses that are used by biology/botany/etc. undergraduate students. The undergrad ones look like they could fall down any minute but these are pretty nice looking (and there's a butterfly garden on the other side of them that I don't have any good pictures of).

The Research (Part I)

I've noticed a lot of similarities between the University of Kentucky and the University of Cincinnati, but one thing that really distinguishes the two is UK's emphasis on agriculture. It's everywhere--and it's not just for future farmers. It's combined with business to form agricultural economics and there's a program specifically for agricultural engineering. It's also really cool to see how involved all the agriculturally-inclined departments are/are trying to be in the community. In fact, UK has been working on opening a Food Systems Innovation Center (which should happen at some point during my time here) to help local farmers and food producers meet FDA requirements for commercial production. On Wednesday I met Angela Anandappa (from Ag Econ), who introduced me to some of the people involved in the project, and then showed me some of the different labs that were participating (mostly those that focused on agricultural engineering, but we also walked around the greenhouses and went inside the plant diagnostics lab).

The lab I'm working in is run by Dr. Melissa Newman (up in the right corner!), whose research is in food microbiology (and based on her list of publications it seems like she's particularly interested in E. coli). Anyway, the lab just received a grant from the Department of Homeland Security to look for what they're calling "natural antimicrobials" that can be added to foods to either kill or prevent the growth of unwanted microbes; and by natural, I'm referring to compounds that are both not harmful to humans and are naturally occurring (not manufactured), such as allicin (found in garlic) or a chili powder extract (just chili powder and water). One of the major microbes targeted in this research is Anthrax, however, others such as listeria and E. coli are also being researched because they are responsible for the vast majority of food-borne illnesses. Interestingly, Dr. Newman mentioned that the likelihood of a bio-terrorist successfully transmitting anthrax through food is very low because the microbe is at its most infectious when it is vaporized and then inhaled. Also, while most of the microorganisms being studied are allowed in the lab, all anthrax research is going to be done on pseudo-anthrax, which while exhibiting similar growth patterns and responding to similar stimuli, does not pose the same safety risks as anthrax.

On a related note, there are actually four different biosafety levels, with four being the most regulated. Level one only involves microbes that are not known to cause disease in humans, and UK is a level two, as are most university labs, which means each scientist needs specialized training in handling pathogenic material, and access to the lab is limited. Level three involves specialized filtration systems and the use of a hood for handling nearly all microbes (this includes West Nile and the SARS virus), and level four involves mandatory hazmat suits, decontamination showers and an ultraviolet light room to kill all pathogens (this is where you'll find your hemorrhagic diseases, smallpox, etc.).

On Thursday I started working with Jen, who's currently working on her PhD in Food Science and Technology. She does most of what I'm going to refer to as the "blind research," in that she is taking various compounds with unknown antimicrobial capacities, creating extracts, and then adding the extracts to different bacterial cultures. Her research focuses on finding the compounds that might work, determining the smallest effective amount possible and then seeing if a combination of two or more compounds is even more efficient than each individual one.

Garrigus

This is a not-super-good picture of the Garrigus building I'm working in, but in my defense, there are way too many trees around to get a clear shot of the place. And while I'm talking about trees, I also want to say that UC needs more of them. UK has huge trees everywhere! Covering every sidewalk and surrounding every building. It's absolutely beautiful!

The First Days

I've just finished up my first two days here at UK, and I can't wait to go back tomorrow! I spent most of today and Monday taking online safety classes before I was allowed to actually start working, and although I'm definitely not disappointed about being done with those, at least now I have six new certificates attesting to my expertise in things like "Chemical Hygiene" and "Hazardous Waste Communication."

Working in a microbiology lab isn't necessarily something you would expect someone majoring in neuroscience to do, and I think that's why I'm so excited about completing this experience. I know I want a career that involves research, but as of now that's really the only thing I know. I've already changed my major once (biology to neuroscience), and I've been thinking about changing again. The required first year classes for most of the science-related majors are pretty similar, and that's definitely not helping me decide. So far the only major-specific class I've taken was a freshman neuroscience seminar that was really beneficial as far as knowing my options after graduating with a neuroscience degree, but it didn't really provide me with a chance to really understand what any of those options would be like.

I want this summer experience to help me decide if microbiology is something I want to spend the rest of my life studying--or at least help me to decide that microbiology is not. While I'm doing that, I'll also be working on improving my knowledge and proficiency in using various lab techniques. Since medicine is another career path I'm considering, and because there are several hospitals very close to where I'm staying, I'm also hoping I have time to shadow some of the doctors who work around here (particularly those who work in the Neuroscience Institute).