Peter Muriana

Dr. Peter Muriana has made notable contributions to the academic community at Oklahoma State University, particularly in the field of food microbiology. As a professor in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences, he has taught a variety of courses, including Food Microbiology, Food Biotechnology, and advanced research-focused classes like Master's Research and Thesis, as well as Doctoral Research and Dissertation.

His teaching emphasizes the relationship between microorganisms and food production, preservation, and safety. Beyond teaching, he serves as an Extension Specialist for Food Microbiology, sharing his expertise with the broader community. His work reflects a commitment to advancing knowledge in food science and mentoring students in their academic and professional journeys.

His main class is Food Microbiology (FDSC 3154; FDSC 5120 is the graduate version) that starts with the history of (food) microbiology, then dives into factors that affect growth of microorganisms in food including detailed discussion of water activity, pH, pKa of organic acids, thermal death kinetics, and quorum sensing. The course then moves into biofilms, foodborne illness & outbreaks, and then the various foodborne pathogens (STEC E. coli, Salmonella, L. monocytogenes, Campylobacter, St. aureus, Cl. botulinum & Cl. perfringens, and B. cereus) involving mechanisms of virulence, pathogenesis, food regulations involving them, and recent/past significant outbreaks that has driven regulatory policy and changes. 

     In striving to make a more effective course, Dr. Muriana has moved from 4 class topics/test down to 2 topics/test to reduce test load on students, while moving from 2 class lectures and 2 labs/week to 3 class lectures and 1 lab per week; he has posted video recordings of his lectures to Canvas; and he has tried to weave actual stories of industry food microbiology experiences with relative lecture topics, the problems posed by microbes and processes, and their eventual solutions into his lectures. In response to prior evaluations where there was complaints of not using any ‘assignments’ for grading purposes, in 2024, he provided several of the first ‘tests’ as take home assignments straight out of the lecture material hoping that would be useful as an 'assignment' and would further indicate the level of detail he would expect in his in-class tests. Dr. Muriana has received teacher evaluations of 3.6/5.0 average evaluation score from 2010-2024. In response to evaluation comments in 2024, Dr. Muriana will include lectures on ‘good bacteria’ such as probiotics and how they are used in foods. He is further planning to include weekly quizzes of the current lecture using ‘Poll Anywhere’ smartphone app where he can test student knowledge retention during same day lectures that report back a score for each student; he is not sure how this may work with SAS-designated students but will inquire with SAS. Food Biotechnology FDSC 5120 is an ‘experiential laboratory course’ whereby there is a mix of instruction, independent study, and laboratory exercises. Dr. Muriana is thinking of pursuing an open, limited-size class (10 students) where they can learn PCR, primer design, use of ‘degenerate primers’, amplimer cleanup from agarose gels, submission to core facility for sequencing, MEGA-X for trimming sequence data, and Nucleotide-BLAST database searches using MEGA-X-trimmed sequences. This would provide other PI’s a useful laboratory class for their students tasked with molecular biology research and microbial identification.