Lee-Ann Jaykus has come a long way since she joined N.C . State in 1994, a time when she was nervous about grants, thinking she would be extremely lucky to land one. But with a $25 million grant from the USDA in her pocket, she can certainly stop worrying about that now.
Jaykus entered the field of food microbiology when she was working towards her doctorate degree in the 1980s . To her, viruses in food “sounded pretty novel and interesting.”
Now, she has one of the largest research grants ever at the University, which she is using to research how to fight the common food-borne Norovirus —a widespread pathogen, known by most as the “24-hour bug.”
Jaykus believes her research will eventually have significant clinical diagnostic impact, and will improve upon methods used to detect contamination in food. It will also help the food industry better control pathogen growth, and educate food handlers on how to avoid food poisoning, according to Jaykus .
“Five years down the line,” she said, “it will result in significant reduction of the day-to-day food poisoning cases we see.”
When she took the job at NCSU , scientists knew about viruses in food but did not realize their significance.
A 1995 paper by Paul Mead, an expert in bacterial and mycotic diseases, revealed that viruses cause 87 percent of foodborne diseases, that led to a shift in focus for most people working in this field. It was an intriguing field for Jaykus at that time, and she has been researching long enough to watch it progress through the years.
“It was initially quite slow to develop, but now we are making pretty rapid progress,” Jaykus said.
The microorganisms Jaykus studies can be classified into good, bad and ugly. The good ones are those that cause fermentation, useful for making wine or yogurt. The ugly ones are those that cause food to go bad, bread mold for instance. And the bad ones are those that cause foodborne diseases.
This is the category she will study with the grant—focusing on viruses rather than bacteria, which were almost impossible to detect about two decades earlier, at the time she was making her foray into the field.
According to Jaykus , noroviruses are present on mollusks, shellfish, fresh produce and other items.
“[These include] ready to eat stuff which is normally handled by human hands, such as sandwiches, pastries and all the other common things you could get in a fast food joint,” Jaykus said.
This grant will certainly mean a change in roles for the professor.
“This grant will result in my assuming more administrative and management responsibilities. I will have to cut down on my time spent teaching, which I certainly have mixed feelings about, since that is something I really like, especially teaching undergraduates,” Jaykus said.
Jaykus also interacts with students outside the classroom, incorporating them into her lab work.
“She is one of the nicest people we have ever met, somebody who is always there for you,” Rebecca Goulter , a postdoctoral research scholar working in Jaykus’ lab, said.
The next step for Jaykus to focus on is setting up infrastructure, getting new staff members and new administrative offices.
Despite the seriousness of the virus research, Jaykus has a sense of humor about her work. The research group has a container of “artificial poop” in their lab which they like showing to visitors.
“I have tons of poop stories which would make you laugh,” she said.
This story was a joint production with the Raleigh Public Record. For more information, visit http:// www.raleighpublicrecord.org /.
