Protecting Vegetables From Human Pathogens

Colorado State University’s Infectious Diseases Supercluster is hosting a symposium on "Human Pathogens on Plants: Research and Policy to Protect Vegetable Crops from Human Pathogens." The two-day symposium will take place on Oct. 20-21 at the Lory Student Center at Colorado State.

Day one of the symposium will kick off with a discussion about the ecology of human pathogens and the interaction of pathogen populations and will wrap up with a look at the emerging technologies for pathogen detection.

The second day of the symposium will consist of four break-out sessions with different topics of discussion including biology research, industry issues, optimizing food safety and plant pathogen research.

The Supercluster concept is based on technology transfer with business specialists and research faculty working together in cluster areas to speed intellectual property deployment. CSU’s Infectious Diseases Supercluster was announced in February 2007 to focus on addressing the challenge of infectious disease with the intent of enabling speedier applications of university research for the benefit of the public. The university created MicroRx, the first of three Superclusters developed by CSU. The other superclusters involve cancer and clean energy research.

Researchers from universities across the country will be speaking about the latest studies of human pathogens in plants and animals to fill research gaps. June Medford, professor of biology at Colorado State, will be speaking at the symposium. Also speaking will be Professor Jacque Fletcher, director of the National Agriculture Biosecurity Institute at Oklahoma State, and Professor Steve Lindow, a National Academy of Sciences member from University of California-Berkeley.

Sponsors of the symposium are Colorado State University’s Infectious Diseases Supercluster, American Phytopathological Society, Center for Produce Safety and the American Seed Trade Association.

For registration, a complete schedule and list of speakers, visit http://ansci.colostate.edu/content/view/686/42. For more information, contact Lawrence Goodridge at (970) 491-6271 or e-mail at Lawrence.Goodridge@colostate.edu, or Stephen Chisholm at (970) 491-6824 or e-mail at Stephen.Chisholm@colostate.edu.

-30-