INFRASTRUCTURE ENHANCEMENT FOR THE NEW INTERDISCIPLINARY PATHOBIOLOGY PHD & TEACHING NANOBIOTECHNOLOGY

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: OTHER GRANTS
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1001072
• Grant No.: 2013-38821-21260
• Cumulative Award Amt.: $150,000.00
• Proposal No.: 2013-03991
• Project Start Date: Sep 1, 2013
• Project End Date: Aug 31, 2018
• Grant Year: 2013
• Program Code: [EP]- Teaching Project

Recipient Organization
TUSKEGEE UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
TUSKEGEE,AL 36088

Performing Department
College of Veterinary Medicine

Non Technical Summary
The main goal of the capacity building education project is to enhance the infrastructure needed for teaching of "nanobiotechnology" to veterinary & graduate students and support the new "Interdisciplinary Pathobiology" PhD program to be launched in the fall of 2013 at Tuskegee University (TU), the only 1890 institution and the only minority institution across the country that has a School of Veterinary Medicine. Nanobiotechnology teaching modules will be introduced within the selected existing courses. New library books/journals and laboratory resources will be acquired to enhance infrastructure for the new PhD program with a focus on nanobiotechnology. This multidisciplinary project will take advantage of the existing expertise at TU's "Center of Excellence for Research on Nano-Biomaterials" and "Center for Nanostructured Materials" both housed in the College of Engineering and expertise at collaborating USDA/ARS laboratories. Student's competency in nanobiotechnology research skills will be achieved through experiential learning opportunities that are expected to create a pipeline of students into the new PhD program. The anticipated outcome is increased numbers of African-American students who pursue and graduate with PhD in food animal health and food safety using nanobiotechnology in their research.

Animal Health Component

40%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

30%

Applied

40%

Developmental

30%

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
311	3220	1040	10%
311	3710	1100	10%
311	3260	1090	10%
311	3999	1101	10%
712	3299	1040	20%
315	3999	1040	40%

Knowledge Area
311 - Animal Diseases; 712 - Protect Food from Contamination by Pathogenic Microorganisms, Parasites, and Naturally Occurring Toxins; 315 - Animal Welfare/Well-Being and Protection;

Subject Of Investigation
3220 - Meat-type chicken, live animal; 3999 - Animal research, general; 3299 - Poultry, general/other; 3260 - Poultry meat; 3710 - Catfish;

Field Of Science
1040 - Molecular biology; 1090 - Immunology; 1101 - Virology; 1100 - Bacteriology;

Keywords

interdisciplinary pathobiology

new phd program

nanobiotechnology

Goals / Objectives
The main goal of this project is to enhance infrastructure needed for successfully launching the long awaited and exciting "Interdisciplinary Pathobiology" PhD (IPB PhD) program and teaching of "Nanobiotechnology" to veterinary and graduate students and expose them to the fundamental understanding of this area of scientific investigation. The specific objectives for this capacity building educational project, keeping in mind the needed areas including: 1. Curriculum design and syllabus development, 2. Student experiential learning, 3. Faculty preparation and enhancement for teaching, are: Initiate the new Interdisciplinary Pathobiology PhD (IPB PhD) program with focus on nanobiotechnology. Build up library and laboratory resources for teaching students in the new IPB PhD program as well as veterinary and graduate students. Provide experiential learning opportunities for undergraduate & veterinary students, and Enhance faculty preparation for teaching & research in the area of nanobiotechnology.

Project Methods
Plan of Operation and Methodology: 1. Procedures to achieve Objective I: Initiate the new Interdisciplinary Pathobiology PhD (IPB PhD) program with focus on nanobiotechnology The new PhD will be initiated with a limited of number of students in the fall of 2013. We will recruit one technical staff member to manage the core laboratories with nanobiotechnology related equipment. The incumbent will upkeep the laboratories and provide technical support to students and faculty members. Initially, nanobiotechnology related teaching modules will be incorporated into a few of the relevant and existing courses (Advanced Pathogenic microbiology, Immunology & Special Problems in Microbiology). A new distinctive graduate level course (Nanobiotechnology) that could also be an elective course for Veterinary students will be developed during the second year of the project. 2. Procedures to achieve Objective II: Build up library and laboratory resources for teaching the enrolled students in the new IPB PhD program as well as veterinary & graduate students To keep a focus on "nanobiotechnology" there is a need to enhance library resources. In this proposal funds are requested funds to buy textbooks, journals and other related teaching materials to be decided by the PD and co-Co-PD's wit hadvise from the collaborators. These are essential as ready references for students and faculty as the new program evolves. Most of the equipment required to provide experiential learning for the students and for training PhD students are currently available. State-of-the-art instruments and apparatus are located in the three multiuser core laboratories in the Williams-Bowie Building, plus two core laboratories are available in the TU's Carver Research Foundation. In addition, several pieces of expensive equipment are also available in the individual laboratories of the faculty members. The Co-PD's have identified immediate requirements for a "Nano-drop" spectrophotometer. Nano and molecular biology techniques and other scientific methods continue to rapidly evolve using progressively smaller amounts of material. Nano-Drop technology has successfully addressed the growing demand for micro-volume quantitation and analysis by being the first to solve the sample conservation issue using fiber optic technology and surface tension properties. This instrument will be purchased with funds requested in this project. Procedures to achieve Objective III: provide experiential learning opportunities for veterinary & undergraduate students Using the enhanced laboratory resources summer experiential learning opportunities will be provided for four selected undergraduate (two) and veterinary students (two), each year, that have interest in molecular research as well as expressed interest in pursuing the IPB PhD program. This will help in attracting potentially high caliber students into the graduate programs. Selected students will be groomed to be ready to join the IPB PhD program so, together with the other successful candidates, they will be career ready for positions in federal research laboratories or private sector research jobs (Animal Health Divisions of Pfizer, Merial, Intervet, etc) when they graduate with their Doctoral degrees. Students will receive hands-on experience in on-going nanobiotechnology related projects. Selected students will be advised to enroll in the elective courses that will have newly introduced nanobiotechnology lectures. The Advanced Pathogenic Microbiology course has a large laboratory component where students learn advanced molecular techniques. They will design primer pairs, perform PCR and RT-PCR protocols and study expression of targeted genes, prepare samples for flow cytometry, and understand the strategies for plasmid construction and cloning. The participation in seminar classes, journal clubs and presentation of papers at local and national meetings will build their confidence in communicating with their peers in national and international organizations. Procedures to achieve Objective IV: Faculty Preparation and enhancement for collaboration in teaching, and research. Systematic efforts must be made to support the development of faculty skills, knowledge, and abilities in order to achieve excellence in teaching, research, and service. Faculty preparation and enhancement for teaching is a continuous process which is relevant over a lifetime of career development. Listed below are conferences/ workshops that are proposed for attendance by selected faculty members to achieve the objectives of this proposal, including the undertaking of curriculum modifications, developing and teaching of the "Nanobiotechnology" lectures and the preparation of a distinct elective course. 1) Workshops for Educators by nano4me.org (http://nano4me.org/educators.php_) 2) Annual Meeting of the American Society of Nanomedicine 3) BioNanoMed; International Congress on nanotechnology, Medicine, & Biology 4) Nanotek, International Conference on Nanotek and Expo. The workshops organized by "nano4me.org" are relevant for faculty members teaching the "Nanobiotechnology" course. The other conferences are relevant for faculty to attend the scientific sessions and present research papers. They are also relevant for graduate students to present papers. Faculty members will be encouraged to become active members of the societies involved in Nanomedicine/ Nanobiotechnology. The faculty members attending these workshops will give seminars for the benefit of other faculty members but also incorporate appropriate new material into the courses they teach. EVLUATION: Quantitative measures and indicators of success of the project include: The new teaching and research infrastructure developed and implemented to achieve the major research objectives of this project Number of presentations at national scientific conferences by veterinary & graduate students and PI's. Number of peer-reviewed publications by the PI's and graduate students. Successful recruitment of students into the new PhD program Number of team oriented research proposals submitted for funding for programs such as USDA/NIFA/AFRI Research Initiative programs Students taking courses including the new "Nanobiotechnology" will evaluate course and instructor at the end of each semester and the information will be analyzed by the "Institutional Research, Assessment and Planning Office" and relayed back to the instructor and department chair. Considering that evaluation will be more credible if an exclusive evaluator is used, we are proposing to use the services of Dr. John Heath, a TUSVM faculty member. He is a trained biomedical researcher and also a psychologist. He has prior evaluation experience in addition to being knowledgeable about the educational initiatives we are proposing. The results will be used to further refine/modify the educational resources. At the end of each project year, self-evaluation of the project will be undertaken by the PI and Co-PIs, leading to the preparation of annual progress reports to be submitted to the CRIS. The IPB PhD Advisory Committee will conduct an annual assessment to determine effectiveness of program management that includes scholarly accomplishment and career direction. Post-graduation tracking will also be included.

Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/18

Outputs
Target Audience:Graduate students including the Interdisciplinary Pathobiology PhD students and Professional veterinary (DVM) students in theCollege of Veterinary Medicine at Tuskegee University. Other audience included scientists and students attending various conferences at which Co-Pi's and graduate students supported by the grant presented research papers. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Mr. Henry Henderson, PhD student working under the supervision of Dr. Deepa Bedi received stipends during the summer of 2015. He was involved in the selection of a number of phages that can bind with high affinity to metastatic cancer cells, MDAMB-231 via a process called selection. Henry's project was to characterize these phages for their binding specificity to the targets in a process called phage binding assay. Mr. Gregory Mwinyelle, PhD student working under the supervision of Dr. Woubit Abdela, Co-PI for this project, received hand-on training at Nanobiosensors laboratory of Dr. E. Alocilja at Michigan State University. He also received training to operate the Potentiometer and also observed part of the preparation of the DNA-biosensor probe. Two faculty members have attended conferences related to Nanotechnogy and gained latest techniques for conducting research and training graduate students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The newly initiated Interdisciplinary Pathobiology PhD program at Tuskegee University is advertised each year at the GRADUATE FAIR and brochures describing the program have been circulated to other 1890 institutions and regional institutions. The PhD students enrolled in the program have presented research papers relating to their thesis projects at local and national scientific conferences. Research manuscripts have been published in peer-reviewed journals. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The Interdisciplinary Pathobiology PhD program was successfully launched and three students have graduated with PhD so far. Three students are expected to graduate in May 2019. Three students have been admitted in the Fall 2018. Nanobiotechnology lectures have been incorporated into three existing courses. Currently enrolled PhD students are using reagents, chemicals including nanomaterials iand a few pieces of equipment in their thesis projects. Two faculty members and one graduate received travel support to attend conferences related to Nanotechnology and to receive training at the Nanotechnology lab at Michigan State University. Each year during the project period up to eight veterinary students have received stipends to attend summer research projects either at Tuskegee University or international institutions.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Rawah Faraj, Ehsan Abdalla, Gopal Reddy, Temesgen Samuel, Woubit Abdela. Chimera of Heat labile Enterotoxin B chain conjugate with LipL32 and or LipL21 proteins induces strong reactive antibodies in experimental mice "IOSR Journal of Biotechnology and Biochemistry (IOSR-JBB) 4. 3 (2018): 58-68.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Sayma Afroj, Khaled Aldahami, Gopal Reddy, Jean Guard, Abiodun Adesiyun, Temesgen Samuel, Woubit Abdela. Simultaneous detection of multiple Salmonella serovars from milk and chicken meat by real-time PCR using unique genomic target regions. Journal of Food Protection, 2017, Vol. 80, No. 11, pp. 1944-1957
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Byomi A, Zidan S, Diab M, Reddy G, Abiodun Adesiyun, and Abdela Woubit (2017) Characterization of Diarrheagenic Escherichia coli Serotypes Isolated from Poultry and Humans. SOJ Vet Sci 3(1): 1-8.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Mohamed A, Reddy G, Samuel T, Mansour M, Woubit Abdela (2016) Clostridium difficile (Cd) in Shelter Dogs: Rationale for Screening of Pets Slated for Adoption. SOJ Vet Sci 2(1): 1-6.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Giang Nguyen, Magda Ismail Abo-Samaha, Gopal Reddy, Mohammed Abdulrahman, Temesgen Samuel, Abiodun Adesiyun and Woubit Abdela. Improved Detection of Campylobacter jejuni, Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella Typhimurium from Raw Meat Products Using Conventional and Newly Developed TaqMan Assays. International Journal of Poultry Science 14 (7): 364-375, 2015, ISSN 1682-8356.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Rawah Faraj, Ehsan Abdella, Temesgen Samuel, Gopal Reddy and Woubit Abdela. LipL32 and /or LipL21 of Leptospira conjugated with enterotoxin B of E. coli induce high titers of antibodies. The 99th Annual Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases (CRWAD), Dec 1-4, 2018, Chicago Marriott, Downtown Magnificent Mile, Chicago, Illinois
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Rawah Faraj, Woubit Abdela, Temesgen Samuel, Gopal Reddy. Novel Approach for Production of Recombinant E. coli Enterotoxin B and Leptospira LipL32 for the Development of Vaccine against Leptospirosis. PepTalk, The Protein Science Week, January 8-12, 2018, Hilton San Diego Bayfront, San Diego, CA

Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/14

Outputs
Target Audience:Graduate students including the Interdisciplinary Pathobiology PhD students and Professional veterinary (DVM) students in the School of Veterinary Medicine at Tuskegee University Changes/Problems:No major changes are being contemplated. We had intial problems in identifying a suitable candiate for the post-doctoral poistion for assisting us in developing new course materials for nanobiotechnology and assisting graduate students in their PhD thesis research work. We hope accomplish this task shortly as a suitable candidate has been identified. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?1. A few undergraduate students and seven veterinary students had the opportunity to work in the laboratories of faculty members in the Department of Pathobiology. Two veterinary students have been provided partial support to participate in summer research internship and also present posters at the 2015 NIH-Merial Symposium, University of California, Davis, CA. Mr. Henry Henderson, PhD student working under the supervision of Dr. Deepa Bedi received stipends during the summer of 2015. He was involved in the selection of a number of phages that can bind with high affinity to metastatic cancer cells, MDA-MB-231 via a process called selection. Henry's project was to characterize these phages for their binding specificity to the targets in a process called phage binding assay. Mr. Gregory Mwinyelle, PhD student working under the supervision of Dr. Woubit Abdela, Co-PI for this project, received hand-on training at Nanobiosensors laboratory of Dr. E. Alocilja at Michigan State University. He also received training to operate the Potentiometer and also observed part of the preparation of the DNA-biosensor probe. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Research papers have been presented at the local research symposia including: George Washington Carver Lecture Series and the Annual Biomedical Research syposium at Tuskegee University. One research manuscript has been published in the International Journal of Poultry Sciene and one other manuscript has been submitted. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Present two papers related to nanotechnology at national & international conferences One faculty member and one PhD student will attend a hands-on workshop related to nanotechnology at the University of Pennsylvania One faculty member (Dr. Woubit Abdela) will attend the "5th Intenational Conference on 2015 NANOTEK & EXPO" in San Antonio, November 16-18 (http://nanotechnologyexpo.conferenceseries.com/call-for-abstracts.php). Attendance at this meeting will facilitate further updating of the syllabi for the existing courses to incorporate the subject of Nanobiotechnology". It is also likely to stimulate ideas for research and submission of proposals to appropriate agencies. Purchase additional books and equipment related to nanobiotechnology

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The Interdisciplinary Pathobiology PhD program has been successfully intiated. The programcurrently has ten students pursuing research in various areas including nanobiotechnology, food safety, infectious diseases of food animals, etc. Laboratory resources including cjhemicals, reagents, kits etc have been purchased for the research of PhD students. A few Library books have been procured and a few new books are being ordered. A total of three undergraduate students and seven veterinary students have undergone summer experiential research opportunities during the summers of 2014 and 2015.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Gregory B. Mwinyelle, Samia Islam, Vijay Rangari, Samuel Temesgen, Abiodun Adesiyun and Woubit Abdela. 2014. Chitosan films as food packaging materials to limit the growth of selected bacterial pathogens. Presented at the George Carver Washington Lecture Series, GCW Museum, Tuskegee University, October 30, 2015. Antibacterial Activity of Pomegranate, Orange and Lemon Peel Extracts Against Food-borne Pathogens and Spoilage Bacteria in vitro and on Poultry Skin. Hazem Ramadan, Byungjin Min, Amit K. Tiwari, Gopal Reddy, Abiodun Adesiyun, Arthur Hinton Jr. and Woubit Abdela. Int. J. Poult. Sci., 14 (4): 229-239, 2015