Episode Details

Matters Microbial #139: How Listeria Gets By With a Little Help From Its Friends September 23, 2026

Today Dr. Jasna Kovac, Huck Chair in Microbiomes in Food Safety and Associate Professor of Food Science at Penn State University (and active member of Penn State's One Health Microbiome Center) joins the quality quorum to discuss how understanding the microbiome in food processing facilities can help reduce the incidence of food borne illnesses, including Listeria.

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Jasna Kovac

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Links for this episode

• Here is an overview of Listeria as a microbe.
• Here is an overview of Listeria pathogenesis.
• A video showing "actin rockets" moving Listeria around inside of a eukaryotic cell.
• Overview from the CDC regarding Listeria.
• Prior #MattersMicrobial podcast about Listeria by Dr. Lisa Gorski.
• An

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