Oragenics Awarded a $250,000 Grant From the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) for the Continued Research and Development of Lantibiotics

UF startup and UF Innovate | Sid Martin Biotech graduate Oragenics, Inc., announced that it was awarded a small business innovation research grant in the amount of $250,000 (Computer-aided Design for Improved Lantibiotics R41GM136034) for the company’s continued research and development of lantibiotics, including its collaborative program with the Biomolecular Sciences Institute at Florida International University (FIU).

Can Handheld DNA Testing Technology Stand Up to Seafood Fraud?

When LeeAnn Applewhite started running DNA analysis on commercial seafood samples in 2015, 75 percent of them – species ranging from grouper and snapper to catfish and shrimp – were mislabeled. “We were testing thousands of samples, and some of it was unintentional mislabeling; it was a bycatch species with [species like] grouper or snapper but the whole load was not erroneously labeled,” said Applewhite, co-founder and president of UF Innovate | Sid Martin Biotech graduate Applied Food Technologies.