Salmonella has been a subject of caution, but instead of brushing off the pathogen, microbiology professor Hosni Hassan has embraced the microbe for a career in research.

Hassan is developing a salmonella vaccine that aims to make poultry and eggs safe for human consumption and to prevent foodborne diseases.

Up to this point, Hassan has worked to make a weakened, non-pathogenic strand of salmonella, and his next step is to develop this as a vaccine to test on humans.

“It could possibly be used in a preventive pill for food poisoning,” Hassan said. “It can be something people take before traveling, especially to countries having water contamination and high instances of food borne illnesses. This vaccine could be used as a precaution against diseases like traveler’s diarrhea.”

Kelly Sexton, senior licensing associate at the Office of Technology Transfer of the National Institute of Health, is spearheading the commercialization of this vaccine. This department works on the entrepreneurial aspects of technologies developed at the University. According to Sexton, OTT acts as the collaborative link between academia and industry to make the benefits of significant inventions accessible to the public.

According to Sexton, companies have asked for sufficient results on poultry before they can work on granting permission for clinical trials on humans. Meanwhile, Sexton has been working on bringing this vaccine into the agricultural pharmaceutical space and the veterinary animal market and getting their feedback.

“I have been interacting with Hassan since he submitted the invention disclosure for this vaccine in 2006. We filed the U.S. patent application for this at the same time,” Sexton said. “I have been in touch with companies since then to get their feedback, and contacted the Biotech Center to request a grant which would help him generate the data needed. The funding from this technology enhancement grant will be used by Hassan in his lab to work on the results demanded by