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MSU student researcher honored for discovery
MISSISSIPPI STATE – A Mississippi State University doctoral student’s research on a life-threatening, food-borne pathogen was honored at a recent international conference.
Dong-Ryeoul Bae, a researcher at MSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine in the Department of Basic Science, submitted a poster presentation about his research on Listeria to the American Society for Microbiology. It earned an Outstanding Student Poster award at the organization’s June meeting in San Francisco.
The American Society for Microbiology is the oldest and largest single life science membership organization in the world. Bae’s award honors exceptional research efforts by future leaders in microbiology. Only 40 abstracts total were selected from the four divisional groups. The conference was attended by more than 8,000 people representing 72 countries.
Bae said Listeria monocytogenes is a potentially deadly food-borne pathogen that can be found in ready-to-eat foods, including deli meat, vegetables and fruits, and transmitted to humans. The pathogen causes listeriosis, which has a mortality rate of up to 30 percent.
Bae found a gene, which he named Listeria Celluose-binding Protein, or LCP, that plays an important role in the ability of the Listeria bacteria to attach to food surfaces.
“The results of this study will be useful in understanding how Listeria attaches to fruits and vegetables and grows on the surfaces of ready-to-eat foods. The results will also contribute to the development of strategies in vegetable and fruit decontamination, preservation and storage,” Bae said.
His research was supported by grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.
Bae is originally from South Korea and received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Gyeongsang National University and North Dakota State University, respectively. He transferred from The Ohio State University in 2008 to work with Dr. Chinling Wang at the CVM’s Department of Basic Science. Bae received his doctorate degree from MSU in May and plans to continue his postdoctoral research on Listeria at MSU under Wang’s direction.
