Dr. Melha Mellata, associate professor of molecular microbiology and IM Program Chair, was recently awarded a $635,000 grant from the USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture's Animal Health Program. 

Over the next four years, Dr. Mellata's team aims to develop a probiotic for newly hatched chicks that inhibits salmonella proliferation. A keystone bacterium they want to apply in the probiotic is segmented filamentous bacteria (SFB). Chicks inoculated with SFB after hatching have been shown to fight off salmonella infections better than uninoculated chicks.

Read more about the grant proposal in the CALS Research and Discovery Newsletter: https://researchnewsletter.cals.iastate.edu/