Dr. Jim Bono is a Research Microbiologist with the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service in the Meat Safety and Quality Research Unit at the Roman L Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, Nebraska. The research objectives for the Unit focus on foodborne pathogens and anti-microbial resistance associated with the production of red meat. Jim’s primary interests are understanding how genome diversity influences Shiga toxin-containing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157:H7 and other STEC non-O157 serogroups' ability to cause disease in humans. In addition, Dr. Bono’s work has identified serotype-specific DNA markers used in commercially available detection kits for STEC O157:H7 and six other STEC serotypes. Jim received his Ph.D. in Biology from Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho. He was an NIH Intramural Research Training Award Fellow at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana, for four years, where he worked on Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease, before joining USMARC in 2000.