Listeria is everywhere, but not all strains are particularly dangerous. It’s one thing to find Listeria in your plant that someone tracked in on his boots, but suppose it’s Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) in a machine or on the wall—that can shut your plant down for a while, during which you frantically clean and hope the FDA inspector doesn’t make an unplanned visit.
Dr. Jack Regan, founder and CEO of LexaGene, a rapid-testing technology company, has been working to speed up testing, simplify it and identify pathogens. Regan holds a PhD in biomedical sciences, is the inventor of LexaGene’s rapid-testing technology and has held leadership positions at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, QuantaLife, Bio-Rad, Applied Biosystems and Life Technologies.