CSI for Our Food Supply

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Dr. Patricia Hatch and Shawnta Lloyd

Narrator:  Mention the phrase forensic science and most people immediately think of crime scene investigation. 

Narrator:  But extending the science beyond fingerprints and DNA, teacher-student research team, Dr. Patricia Hatch and Shawnta Lloyd recently spent their summer vacations at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory to determine what role forensic chemistry plays in the protection our nation’s food supply.

Narrator:  The team members focused their research on ricin, a natural toxin the CDC has designated as a possible agent of biological warfare.

Narrator:  Ricin symptoms can vary depending on the method of exposure, but essentially it can cause death by getting inside the cells of a person’s body and preventing those cells from making the proteins they need.

Hatch:  Ricin is a protein toxin derived from a castor bean plant. Castor beans are used to make castor oil.

Hatch:  Because during this process of making castor oil, ricin—which is toxic—is a byproduct of that process and so it’s now readily available.

Narrator:  Hatch and Lloyd are looking for lectins, or sugar enriched proteins, categorizing them based their distinct qualities, and hoping to find the qualities within the proteins that may be similar in structure and function to ricin. 

Hatch:  What we are doing here at the laboratory, I’d like to think of it as being proactive in terms of forensic chemistry. We are not waiting for a crime to be committed, but we are actually developing techniques to prevent, if you will, the massive catastrophe of a food contamination.

Narrator:  Hatch, who’s an assistant professor of chemistry at Hampton University, comments that she is looking forward using this experience and applying it within her classroom. Lloyd, on the other hand, feels she has gained a leg-up on her classmates.

Lloyd:  I think that it’s made me more confident in my career goals like I want to pursue a higher degree than I did before. I think I’ve also learned lab skills and research skills that I can incorporate in my classes when I return to school.

Narrator:  Any ricin surrogates identified through Hatch and Lloyd’s research will be incorporated into future food contamination studies, and will reduce the risks current researchers face when handling large amounts of the toxic substance.

Narrator:  Hatch and Lloyd’s research is sponsored by the National Center for Food Protection and Defense, a DHS Center of Excellence, and is administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education