Sustainability Leadership Fellowship Cohort: 2015-2016

Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Clinical Sciences

Research Summary: My research focuses on improving our understanding of antibiotic resistance in livestock production, with the ultimate goal of protecting public health.  We track antibiotic resistance throughout the food production system, trying to determine whether specific production practices (including use of antibiotics) foster or mitigate the development of antibiotic resistance.  To this end, we have sampled cattle and their waste products in feedlots and slaughterhouses, and are currently expanding this work to swine and poultry.  Using cutting-edge DNA sequencing methods on the collected samples, we hope to better understand how resistance is disseminated within and from these systems.