Walt Hill Email and Phone Number

IEH - Chief Science Officer. Mostly analyze and prepare reports from IEH's testing beef laboratories. Report findings in scientific meetings. Review manuscripts to be submitted for publication. Review FSIS data.

Present lectures in courses entitled: “Environmental and Occupational Toxicology”, “Epidemiology of Diseases Communicable from Nature”, and “Molecular Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases”.

Manage all aspects of the Division: scientific, personnel, fiscal. Serve on and participate in projects and committees at the Agency, Departmental and Interdepartmental level. The functions of the Division are to promote food safety and provide expertise and leadership in advancing the latest scientifically based microbiological approaches to detect, understand and prevent foodborne illness. Additionally, this Division advances the application of new technologies to prevent and control foodborne hazards for the Agency. It coordinates and provides scientific support for the microbial hazard analysis of meat, poultry and egg products and defines, identifies, and proposes courses of action pertaining to emerging human health hazards in foods. A specialty laboratory conducts advanced analyses and oversees methods validation. The Division provides scientific support for risk assessment, management, communication and emergency control of hazards associated with these products as they are processed and enter further distribution, preparation and consumption segments of the food chain.

Develop methods for the detection of foodborne pathogens in seafoods using DNA hybridization and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques. Serve as Research Center expert in molecular biology and establish appropriate research collaborations with other Research Center and regulatory scientists. Duties include:Technical resource for DNA investigators during their inspections of biotechnology companies. Acting Director of the Seafood Products Research Center (SPRC) in the absence of the Director. Reviewer for submissions to peer-reviewed internationally known journals and for grant applications to federal research funding agencies. Provide assistance to the Research Center personal computer expert. Research projects include development of PCR techniques for the simultaneous detection and identification of marine Vibrio species and a multiplex PCR for detecting the genes for the Shiga-like toxins of Escherichia coli O157:H7.Explore the use of arbitrary primer and RAPD® primer methods to identify bacterial strains for epidemiological purposes. Apply these techniques for the identification of fish species to combat economic fraud due to species substitution; develop a database of RFLP patterns in collaboration with the SPRC chemometrician.Serve as Chairman of FDA's Pacific Region Biotechnology Committee.Present lectures at the University of Washington on food safety and related issues.Mentor students and supervise interns' research projects. Periodically, serve as FDA Seattle District after-hours duty officer.SPRC representative to the Seattle District Employee Advisory Committee.SPRC representative to the ORA21 Working Analysts Advisory Group. Served on SEA-DO Design Team and the Performance Evaluation Committee. Member of Shoreline Community College and Bates Technical College Biotechnology Program Advisory Committees. Serve as Acting District Director as needed.

Set up and manage laboratory group to investigate the role of plasmids in the pathogenicity of foodborne bacteria and develop and test genetic probes for the detection of virulent bacterial strains in food using DNA colony hybridization. Conduct studies to determine the suitability and reliability of the probes for use in carrying out the regulatory mission of FDA. Conduct basic research on the mechanisms of bacterial pathogenicity. Clone genes responsible and test the appropriateness of resulting probes. Sequence genetic regions coding for virulence and synthesize oligonucleotides for use as probes. Provide technical advice on the impact of biotechnology on the food industry and predict possible regulatory consequences. Provide graphics, data analysis, and microcomputer support to the Division of Microbiology. Study the effect of selective enrichment procedures on the stability of bacterial virulence determinants. Apply molecular and genetic methods for the detection of pathogens in foods to such bacteria as Yersinia enterocolitica, Vibrio cholerae, V. parahaemolyticus, V. vulnificus, Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli (including O157:H7), Salmonella species, Staphylococcus aureus, and Campylobacter jejuni. Serve as agency resource person to assist Commissioner's speechwriters in this area. Coordinate construction and use of synthetic oligonucleotide probes for the detection of viruses in foods. Head Division effort to develop testing system to detect bacterial pathogens in certified raw milk. Serve as Association of Official Analytical Chemists Associate Referee for genetic methods to detect pathogens. Author chapter on these genetic methods for the Bacteriological Analytical Manual. Train FDA field personnel in genetic identification methods. Advise Center on matters concerning the use of recombinant DNA methods for the production of foods and food additives.