Cross-Border Threat Screening and Supply Chain Defense

A Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence

Developing technology to detect harmful chemicals in shrimp supplies

Department of Homeland Security center in AgriLife Research funds Summer Research Team at Prairie View A&M

Two women standing at a laboratory bench facing backward toward camera smiling.
Harshica Fernando, Ph.D., (right) works in a laboratory with Naiyah McDaniel, a master’s student in chemistry at Prairie View A&M University. (Courtesy photo)

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence for Cross-Border Threat Screening and Supply Chain Defense, CBTS, led by Texas A&M AgriLife Research, is supporting a DHS Summer Research Team effort to detect harmful chemicals in shrimp supplies.

The Summer Research Team is led by Harshica Fernando, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry at Prairie View A&M University.

Fernando and her students are using advanced tools to detect polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PAHs, in shrimp. More than 100 PAH compounds are known, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has identified 16 to be harmful to human health…

Read More at Texas A&M AgriLife Today