This collaborative effort is aimed at utilizing genomics to better understand what makes foodborne pathogens tick and then share this knowledge to make the food supply chain safer
Considered to be the single largest study ever, Mars, Inc. and IBM Research are exploring metagenomics in an effort to better understand what makes food safe, or unsafe. This advanced process enables the identification of microorganisms directly from environmental samples, regardless of the difficulty faced with growing organisms in a petri dish. By examining the DNA of microbial communities, the entire structure and each of its functions within a specific environment, can be ferreted out. There is potential to unravel many of the secrets these microbial communities now hide; secrets that could result in the discovery of new molecules in order to provide new solutions for therapeutic and biotechnical applications.
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