Pacon

Oklahoma State University-PaCoN

Pacific Continental Network at OSU

The Institute for Biosecurity and Microbial Forensics (IBMF) at Oklahoma State University is seeking U.S. citizens to enroll in graduate studies at the master's and doctoral levels. The program is funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). To start in the fall of 2024 three doctoral graduate students holding master's degrees and six master's graduate students will be recruited. Ten undergraduate students will be selected to enroll in a paid eight-week summer internship biosecurity program. High School students are welcome to enroll in a two-day biosecurity workshop.

The PaCon project aims to form the next generation of biosecurity leaders through the Pacific Continental Network (PaCoN). Graduate students will be able to specialize in research areas such as bioinformatics, plant pathology, plant virology, insect vectors of diseases, and food microbiology.

One hand with a blue glove holing a vaccine.

Bioinformatics, sequencing, and plant microbiome

This research program is led by Dr. Andres Espindola, a plant pathologist and bioinformatician specializing in developing methods that apply high-throughput sequencing (HTS) and bioinformatics to detect plant pathogens and microbes. His research program uses sequencers such as Illumina and the portable MinION to produce HTS data and develop computational models and pipelines to detect pathogens in plants, animals, and vectors effectively. Students are trained in DNA sequencing protocols for pathogen detection and data analysis.

Contact: Dr. Andres Espindola Espindola Research Group

Food Microbiology, High school and undergraduate internship program

This research program is led by Dr. Li Ma a food microbiologist who specializes in rapid detection, DNA fingerprinting, and molecular characterization of foodborne pathogens; Soil microbiomes in association with foodborne pathogens; Food decontamination technology-atmospheric cold plasma.

Contact: Dr. Li Ma

One man holding six petri dishes with purple liquid.

Plant virology, plant pathology & insect vectors of plant diseases

This research program is led by Dr. Ochoa-Corona, a forensic plant pathologist specializing in developing and delivering reference diagnostics for exotic, naturalized, indigenous plant viruses, as other phytopathogens such as fungi and bacteria, and animal and public health relevant to agricultural biosecurity and microbial forensics. Dr. Ochoa-Corona's research program focuses on novel detection and diagnostic methods, such as rapid and portable lateral flow isothermal RPA, HDA, and LAMP applicable at borders to detect pre-determined phytopathogens in general surveillance field settings or within transitional facilities. Moreover, his research program investigates the Electronic-probe (e-probe) Diagnostic Nucleic-acid Analysis (EDNA), which combines High Throughput Sequencing (HTS) with Bioinformatics. Dr. Ochoa-Corona has more than 40 years of experience.

Contact: Dr. Francisco Ochoa-Corona