The World's First Genetic Sequencing of a Corndog Will Happen this Year at the Minnesota State Fair

This summer at the Minnesota State fair, another new attraction will be happening: The gene sequencing of a corn dog.

Beth Thielen, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, and Christopher Faulk, Associate Professor of Functional Genomics in the Department of Animal Science have teamed up to draw attention to gene sequencing and their study on emerging respiratory disease trends. Their study, informally named "Got Snot?", will analyze the respiratory swabs of sick Minnesota participants to determine what respiratory diseases are emerging.

The researchers want to show the public and potential study participants the gene sequencing process. Therefore, they decided to demonstrate the technology on one of Minnesotan's favorite fair snacks—the corn dog. Using a portable sequencing device the size of a Snickers bar, plugged into a laptop, they will analyze the genetic makeup of the corn dog, predicting the presence of corn and beef DNA.

To read more about the research corndog and their infectious diseases gene sequencing study, follow this link.