Todd R. Klaenhammer
North Carolina State University
|
Election Year: 2001 Primary Section: 62, Plant, Soil, and Microbial Sciences Secondary Section: 61, Animal, Nutritional, and Applied Microbial Sciences Membership Type: Member |
Research Interests
My laboratory's program employs genetic approaches for the improvement and diversification of lactic acid bacteria that are used as starter cultures in food and dairy fermentations and as probiotics. Specific emphasis is on investigating the molecular mechanisms through which bacteria protect themselves against bacteriophage attack and developing novel mechanisms that circumvent phage infection, prevent proliferation, or close genetic routes for phage evolution. Recent efforts in genomics are investigating the molecular mechanisms responsible for the survival and activity of probiotic Lactobacillus species in the gastrointestinal tract and use of this information to develop live bacterial delivery systems for bioactive compounds in vivo (e.g., vaccines, enzymes). Teaching interests include food and dairy microbiology, fermentation bioprocessing, and food biotechnology, with special emphasis on the application of genomics and molecular biology to practical issues facing the developing food and dairy industries.
