ORISE Postdoctoral Fellow, USDA/ Eastern Regional Research Center

Education

• Research mentor: Dustin Brisson, PhD.; University of Pennsylvania

• Teaching mentor:  James Gallagher, PhD.; Lincoln University  

Research Topic: Effective Lyme Disease Detection

This project investigates a new laboratory and ultimately a point-of-care platform for diagnosing Lyme disease during early and late-stage infections. Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, is the most prevalent vector-borne pathogen in temperate areas of the Northern Hemisphere. Untreated cases can lead to severe and chronic sequelae including chronic fatigue, arthritic joint pain, myalgia, joint swelling, facial palsy, neurocognitive difficulties, and paresis. Early diagnosis of infection is critical to preventing disease progression and more destructive symptoms. While treatment during acute-phase infections succeeds in more than 90% of cases, up to one-third of chronically-infected patients retain Lyme disease symptoms even after treatment. Nearly 25% of Lyme disease patients are initially misdiagnosed because symptoms are non-specific and the available serological tests are poorly sensitive during the early acute-stages of infection. The FDA has issued a public warning of the high potential for misdiagnosis of Lyme disease. Public fear associated with Lyme disease stems largely from the uncertainty of diagnosis and the inability to properly assess treatment success in late-stage infections. An effective laboratory technology that can reliably diagnose patients and accurately monitor response to treatment is imperative to reducing the economic and personal costs of Lyme disease. 

 
Publications

Journal Publications 

• Steven Pao, B. Hagens, C. Kim, S. Wildeus, M. Ettinger, M. Wilson, B. Watts, N. Whitley^,  A. Porto- Fett, J. Schwarz, S. Ren, W. Long III, H. Li, J. Luchansky. (2013). Prevalence and Molecular Analyses of Campylobacter jejuni and Salmonella spp. in Co-Grazing Small Ruminants and Wild-Living Birds.

• Steven Pao., W. Long III, C. Kim, and R. Rafie. (2012). Salmonella Population Rebound on Washed and Non- washed Jalapeño Peppers and Roma Tomatoes during Storage at Ambient Temperatures.  Foodborne Pathogens and Disease.  9: 361-366.

• Wilbert Long III, S. Pao., P. Inserra., E. Westbrook, and S. Ahn. (2011). Efficacy of Ozone Produce Washers in Reducing Natural and Artificially Inoculated Microorganisms on Roma Tomatoes and Green Onions. Journal of Food Safety.  31: 268-275.

• Steven Pao., C. Kim., L. Jordan, W. Long III, P. Inserra, and B. Sayre. (2011). Growth of Salmonella enteric and Staphylococcus aureus in No-knead Bread Dough during Prolonged Yeast Fermentation. Journal of Food Protection.  74: 285-288.

• Steven Pao., F. Kelsey, and W. Long III. (2009).  Spray Washing of Tomatoes with Chlorine Dioxide To Minimize Salmonella  on  Inoculated  Fruit  Surfaces  and  Cross-Contamination  from  Revolving  Brushes.  Journal of  Food Protection.  72: 2448-2452.

• Earl Benjamin III., J. Cooper., J. Jamison., W. Long III, and E. Benjamin. (2007). "Computational and Experimental Probing of Product Formation and Reaction Energies for the Esterification of Maleic Anhydride Derived Surfactants using  Microwave  Energy"  Published  in  the  proceedings  of  ECSOC-11,  The  Eleventh  International  Electronic Conference on Synthetic  Organic Chemistry. The 11th   International Electronic Conference on Synthetic Organic Chemistry. ISBN 3-906980-19-7.

• Wilbert Long III and Shobha Sriharan.  (2004).  Land  Cover  Classification  of  SSC  Images:  Supervised  and Unsupervised Classification Using ERDAS Imagine.  Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2004.  IGARSS '04. Proceedings. 2004 IEEE International.  4: 2707-2712.

Book Chapters

• Pao, S., W. Long III, C. Kim, and F. D. Kelsey. (2012). Produce Washers, in Decontamination of Fresh and Minimally Processed Produce (ed V. M. Gómez-López), Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, UK. doi: 10.1002/ 9781118229187.ch5

Contact Info:

Wilbert Long III, Ph.D
Evolution and Ecology of Disease Systems Laboratory
Department of Biology
University of Pennsylvania
Leidy Laboratories, Room 325
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Email: wlong@sas.upenn.edu