University of Nebraska-Lincoln veterinary scientist Jim Keen

UNL leads $25 million project targeting E. coli threat to food safety

The USDA and UNL announced on Jan. 23 a $25 million project to reduce E. coli strains that pose a major threat to public health. At the grant celebration, Jim Keen (pictured), a UNL veterinary scientist who is leading the project, said there are 500 known STEC, 100 of which can cause illness in humans. The research, led by Keen as principal investigator, will focus on the seven most dangerous strains of E. coli, plus a new strain that made its first widespread appearance in an outbreak in Europe in 2011.

Forty-eight scientists, including 32 from UNL and Kansas State University, will work on the project. In total, 11 universities will collaborate on the research. USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture, representatives from KSU and dozens of other researchers and administrators from universities and government attended the grant celebration. Read more about this grant in Today@UNL.

Dreher's one-woman show at Sheldon

Kwakiutl Dreher

For Kwakiutl Dreher, an independent study course took an unexpected therapeutic turn. "It was a way to relieve myself of psychological exhaustion from dealing with all of these literary theories I was studying at the time," said Dreher, an associate professor of English and ethnic studies. "I wanted to create. I wanted to produce."

So in the back halls of Southern California coffee shops in the late 1990s, when Dreher was working on her doctorate in English literature at the University of California, Riverside, a story began to unfold. Words on the screen would go on to become the manuscript for a one-woman show, "In a Smoke-filled Room...Color Matters," which Dreher will perform at 6 p.m., Jan. 24 in the Sheldon Museum of Art. Read more about this show in Today@UNL.