Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zhao Chen | Food Toxicity | Research Excellence Award
Professor | Institute of Basic Research in Clinical Medicine | China
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zhao Chen (He/His) is a distinguished research scientist in the field of Food Safety Microbiology and Genomics, focusing on the integration of cutting-edge omics technologies and bioinformatics to address persistent challenges in food safety. His educational background includes advanced studies in Microbiology, culminating in a doctoral degree. Throughout his professional career at prestigious research institutions, he has served in significant roles, including as an Assistant Research Scientist, and has successfully led federally funded projects as a Principal Investigator. His primary research interests encompass whole-genome sequencing and genomic analysis of foodborne pathogens, investigating the stress response of these microorganisms, and developing advanced methods for their survival, detection, transfer, and inactivation. He possesses exceptional research skills in next-generation sequencing, long-read and hybrid genome assembly, bioinformatics, quantitative microbiological risk assessment, and molecular microbiology. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zhao Chen has been recognized for his contributions, serving as an active journal editor and reviewer, and is a member of key professional organizations such as the International Association for Food Protection. His significant output of peer-reviewed articles has been published in numerous top-tier journals.
Featured Publications:
Chen, Z., Erickson, D. L., & Meng, J. (2020). Benchmarking hybrid assembly approaches for genomic analyses of bacterial pathogens using Illumina and Oxford Nanopore sequencing. BMC Genomics, 21(1), 1-21. (119 Citations)
Chen, Z., Erickson, D. L., & Meng, J. (2021). Polishing the Oxford Nanopore long-read assemblies of bacterial pathogens with Illumina short reads to improve genomic analyses. Genomics, 113(3), 1366–1377. (68 Citations)
Chen, Z., Erickson, D. L., & Meng, J. (2020). Benchmarking long-read assemblers for genomic analyses of bacterial pathogens using Oxford Nanopore sequencing. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 21(23), 9161. (48 Citations)
Chen, Z., Diao, J., Dharmasena, M., Ionita, C., Jiang, X., & Rieck, J. (2013). Thermal inactivation of desiccation-adapted Salmonella spp. in aged chicken litter. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 79(22), 7013–7020. (77 Citations)
Chen, Z., Kim, J., & Jiang, X. (2018). Survival of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella enterica in animal waste‐based composts as influenced by compost type, storage condition and inoculum level. Journal of Applied Microbiology, 124(5), 1311–1323. (57 Citations)
Chen, Z., & Meng, J. (2021). Persistence of Salmonella enterica and Enterococcus faecium NRRL B-2354 on baby spinach subjected to temperature abuse after exposure to sub-lethal stresses. Foods, 10(9), 2141. (32 Citations)
Chen, Z., & Zhu, C. (2011). Modelling inactivation by aqueous chlorine dioxide of Dothiorella gregaria Sacc. and Fusarium tricinctum (Corda) Sacc. spores inoculated on fresh chestnut kernel. Letters in Applied Microbiology, 52(6), 676–684. (54 Citations)