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Volume 6, Issue 8 (Suppl) J Biotechnol Biomater
ISSN: 2155-952X JBTBM, an open access journal Bio America 2016
November 28-30, 2016
Page 18
conferenceseries.com
November 28-30, 2016 San Francisco, USA
13th Biotechnology Congress
Xiaohua He, J Biotechnol Biomater 2016, 6:8(Suppl)
Outbreaks of Shiga toxin-related poisoning and methods for early detection
S higa toxin (Stx) is one of the major virulence factors produced by Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and is
noted for its association with a wide spectrum of diseases such as hemorrhagic colitis (HC) and hemolytic uremic syndrome
(HUS), the leading cause of acute renal failure in children. The outbreaks caused by Stx have raised serious public health
concerns and resulted in huge economic losses. In 1982 the first reported outbreak of STEC was caused by an E. coli O157:H7
serotype in undercooked hamburger but in a report published in 2012, six non-O157 serotypes were revealed to be responsible
for 113,000 illnesses annually in the United States alone, almost double the amount of illness caused by O157. Other sera-
groups, including the highly virulent E. coli O104:H4, have also caused large outbreaks of HC and HUS. As the sources of
outbreaks have changed, a variety of detection methods for Stxs and organisms that produce them have evolved as well. Here,
we will discuss the recent advances on the detection, characterization and typing of Stxs with emphasis on work performed at
the Western Regional Research Center, USDA, ARS.
Biography
Xiaohua He is a Research Molecular Biologist at the Western Regional Research Center, USDA-ARS. She has completed her PhD from UC Riverside and had Post-doc
experiences at Purdue and Cornell Universities. She has received the 2015 USDA Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer, Far West Region and Out-
standing Technology Development Award for her contribution to the development of novel monoclonal antibodies against a broad range of Shiga toxins. She has served
as an Academic Editor and Editorial Board Member of several leading journals and is an author/inventor of over 70 publications and patents with 14 technologies licensed
to industry.
Xiaohua He
United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, USA