Dr. Andrew Gehring began his career with the USDA as a T.W.
Edminster Postdoctoral Research Associate with the ARS's Eastern Regional
Research Center located just outside of Philadelphia. His research focused on
developing biosensor-based methods for rapid detection of foodborne bacterial
pathogens, including immunomagnetic electrochemical methods for Salmonella spp.
and E. coli O157:H7. Dr. Gehring later accepted a permanent
position with the ARS as a leather chemist, a seemingly unrelated area of
research. However, he eventually began working on rapid dehairing, a food
safety initiative during the slaughter of cattle. Participation in this team-based
research yielded the generation of a series of publications (one of which was
selected to be paper of the year in the Journal of the American Leather
Chemists Association), an international patent application, and a gold medal in
private sector involvement awarded by the Philadelphia Federal Executive Board.
He later returned to his earlier biosensor work on developing rapid methods for
post-harvest food safety analysis where he currently applies multiplexed,
antibody-based microarray technology to the rapid, high-throughput screening of
foods for bacterial pathogens and associated toxins.
- Gehring,
A.G., Albin, D.M., Bhunia, A., Reed, S.A., Tu, S., Uknalis, J. Antibody
microarray detection of Escherichia coli O157:H7:
Quantification, assay limitations, and capture efficiency. Analytical
Chemistry. 2006. v. 78. p. 6601-6607.
- Gehring,
A.G., Bailey, D.G., DiMaio, G.L., Crowther, J.C. Improved hide quality and
rapid unhairing. Journal of the American Leather Chemists Association.
2002. v. 97. p. 339-348.