College of Ag Sciences professor honored by national microbial research network

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Edward Dudley, professor of food science and director of the E. coli Reference Center in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Penn State, has been awarded the 2023 J. Roger Porter Award by the United States Culture Collection Network in recognition of his outstanding leadership to support novel life science discoveries.

The award recognizes a scientist who has demonstrated the value of microbial biodiversity through continuous curatorial or stewardship activities for a major resource used by the scientific community. The United States Culture Collection Network is a Research Coordination Network, supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, with a mission to facilitate the safe and responsible utilization of microbial resources for research, education, industry, medicine and agriculture.

Created in 1967, the E. coli Reference Center at Penn State was on the brink of closing and its decades’ worth of resources and knowledge was in jeopardy upon the retirement of its previous curator when Dudley assumed leadership in 2017. Today, the center is the largest repository for E. coli strains in North America, with more than 85,000 isolates — microorganism cultures — representing over 300 species from diverse geographic regions.

Dudley brought the E. coli Reference Center into the genomics area, expanding its scientific reach and impact beyond mere preservation. His dedication to the project has been unwavering, according to Robert Roberts, professor and head of Penn State’s Department of Food Science.

“The center’s collection of pathogens is a vital national resource that was at a crossroads when Ed got involved,” Roberts said. “He is now guiding the process of creating a web-based searchable format for identifying strains in the collection, make it easier to be utilized for epidemiological studies.”

Under Dudley’s leadership, the facility has emerged as a landmark in genome sequencing, with over 7,000 isolates sequenced and made publicly available, facilitating genotype-phenotype studies of how underlying genetics impact how organisms look and function, as well as enabling new avenues of research related to the ability of microbes to cause illness.

In addition to his role at the E. coli Reference Center, Dudley conducts research on foodborne pathogens using genomics approaches to advance understanding of E. coli and Salmonella biology, evolution and diagnostics. His findings have significantly contributed to the scientific community's knowledge on virulence potential and infection risks at the strain level.

Dudley and his lab are also a member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s GenomeTrakr Network, the first distributed network of laboratories utilizing whole genome sequencing to track the spread of pathogens during foodborne outbreaks.

Dedicated to training the next generation of scientists, Dudley has guided eight doctoral students and seven master’s degree students to graduation and trained seven postdoctoral fellows. He supports diversity in education by leading U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded programs, including a National Needs Fellowship grant and an eight-week summer camp on genome sequencing for students from traditionally underrepresented groups in science.

Additionally, Dudley actively contributes to the broader microbiology community through his roles with the American Society of Microbiology as editor for the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, and as elected food microbiology representative to the society’s Council on Microbial Sciences.

Dudley will be formally recognized at the upcoming United States Culture Collection Network Genome Sequencing and Microbial Resources workshop June 10-11 in Davis, California, where he will present how the E. coli Reference Center collection is leveraged to identify new serotypes and predict bacteriophage susceptibility.