MADISON, N.J. (July 16, 2002) -- Drew Univesity will receive over $380,000 to support research on determining the genome sequence of a bacterium that causes respiratory diseases in commercially grown turkeys. The project is funded by a joint grant from the National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Louise Temple is the principal investigator and Alan Candiotti is co-principal investigator. Drew students will participate in national and international research internships as part of the project and others, chiefly in biology and computer science, will collaborate to design and implement an interactive, searchable web site utilizing the sequence data.

Research to better understand the mechanism of disease causation by the Bordetella avium strain 197N has been underway in the Biology Department at Drew for the past eight years.