This research develops a rapid digital PCR workflow to quantify Salmonella contamination in chicken products. Unlike traditional yes-or-no testing, digital PCR measures bacterial levels directly, enabling faster and more accurate food safety decisions within eight hours. The work improves risk assessment, intervention strategies, and prevention of foodborne illness outbreaks.
2026
This research develops a computational method for detecting hidden RNA viruses within existing RNA sequencing datasets. By identifying conserved viral protein signatures, the approach enables large-scale discovery of previously unknown viruses, improving understanding of viral diversity, disease mechanisms, and future opportunities for diagnostics, surveillance, and antiviral treatment development.
Mashpit is a portable genome-search tool that runs on a Raspberry Pi, enabling rapid, offline screening of Salmonella genomes. Using MinHash sketches, it scans hundreds of thousands of genomes in seconds, offering small or low-resource labs a fast, accessible way to identify related isolates before performing high-resolution follow-up analyses.