The organizers of this workshop series are willing to offer instruction of customized versions of these workshops at locations worldwide. Interested parties should contact Kendra Nightingale by email at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it for more information.

Date: August 3^rd through August 7^th, 2009

Location: Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO

Instructors: Martin Wiedmann (Cornell University), Mark Carter (Silliker Labs), Kendra Nightingale (Colorado State University) and Sarita Raengpradub (Silliker Labs)

Goal of Workshop: The overall goal of the “Molecular Methods in Food Microbiology Symposium and Workshop Series” is to address and fill-in knowledge gaps regarding molecular detection and subtyping of foodborne pathogens and spoilage organisms for industry professionals and graduate students being trained to work in the food industry. In order to realize this goal, we have assembled an advisory committee to address the challenges the industry faces today with respect to molecular methods.

Advisory Board:

• Tim Freier, Director, Global Food Safety Technologies, Cargill
• Paul Hall, Food Safety Consultant 
• Scott Hood, Senior Manager, Microbiology, General Mills 
• Yuewei Hu, Microbiologist, General Mills 
• Randy Huffman, Chief Food Safety Officer, Maple Leaf Foods
  
• Keith Lampel, U.S. Food and Drug Administration 
• Jennifer Lee, Quaker Oats, PepsiCo 
• Mark Moorman, Senior Director, Food Safety and Chemistry, Kellogg Company 
• Theo Morille-Hinds, Associate Program Director of Global Manufacturing and Food Safety, Kraft Foods 
• Bob Reinhard, Director Food Safety, Sara Lee Food and Beverage 
• Jenny Scott, Vice President of Science Policy, Food Protection, Grocery Manufacturers Association
  
• Les Smoot, Director, Nestle Quality Assurance Center 
• Kathryn Boor, Cornell University
  

Program overview: This new workshop will exclusively cover the use of molecular genetics approaches used in food microbiology; antibody-based technologies (e.g., ELISA, etc.) will not covered. In 2009, this workshop will focus on nucleic acid-based subtyping and characterization of food associated microorganisms. Program topics will include but will not be limited to DNA band-based subtyping methods (e.g., ribotyping, pulsed field gel electrophoresis, REP-PCR) and typing and characterization methods based on 16s rDNA sequencing. Principles of molecular epidemiology and their application to foodborne disease outbreak investigations will also be covered. DNA sequencing-based subtyping methods (e.g., multilocus sequence typing, multilocus variable number tandem repeat analysis, single nucleotide polymorphism typing) will be covered at the 2010 workshop.

This one-week program includes a one-and-a-half-day lecture series and symposium as well as a three-day hands-on workshop (registration limited to 30 people). The lecture series and symposium will provide the fundamental knowledge and core concepts behind molecular subtyping approaches and the detailed understanding required to accurately interpret results from these assays. The hands-on workshop session will allow participants to not only become familiar with commercial molecular detection subtyping systems, but also allow them to learn how develop and troubleshoot of custom molecular subtyping assays.

The Molecular Methods in Food Microbiology Symposium and Workshop Series is funded in part by a National Integrated Food Safety Initiative Grant awarded to Kendra Nightingale and Martin Wiedmann (Grant No. 2008-51110-04333) of the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.