EPI Research Day

Global collaborations remain a recurring theme at EPI Research Day 2024, emphasizing their impact in driving breakthroughs in infectious diseases.

University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine assistant scientist Jeff Gruntmeir, Ph.D., won first place in the early-stage investigator poster competition at EPI Research Day 2024.

Sebastian Botero-Cañola, a postdoctoral associate at the UF College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, won first place in the post-doctoral poster competition at EPI Research Day 2024.

University of Florida College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Ph.D. candidate Tingting Gu explored the implications of Listeria’s symbiosis with other background microflora on food contact surfaces.

Graduate student Amanda Ojeda won best research poster in the EPI Research Day 2023 trainee research poster competition. Her research focused on identifying the prevalence and the composition of Campylobacter species in infants in a rural area of eastern Ethiopia during their first year of life and potential reservoirs. The project was a team collaboration between Ojeda and collaborators at the University of Florida, Haramaya University, Ohio State University, Washington University in St. Louis and Massey University in New Zealand. 

Postdoctoral candidate Rui Chen won best research poster in the EPI Research Day 2023 Early-Stage Investigator Poster Competition. Her poster consisted of several interrelated projects, but her main research focused on characterizing the function of inwardly rectifying potassium (Kir) channels in insects nervous system.  

The Emerging Pathogens Institute’s annual Research Day event celebrates pathogens research and the people who work in this critical academic space. After three years of meeting virtually, the event was held in person at the Reitz Union on Feb. 16, 2023 on the University of Florida’s campus. Researchers and students exhibited 123 abstracts and posters that probed pathogens and infectious diseases topics spanning from lab research to field investigations and bioinformatic analyses.

From land to sea, EPI’s Research Day keynote talks featured recent leaps in pathogen research affecting people and the aquatic animal source foods we consume.

EPI's thirteenth annual research day took place yesterday, with nearly 150 poster presentations and two keynote speakers who both addressed the latest research in dengue, a growing global public health menace.