Research Focus

Inflammation is the manifestation of innate immune responses against the pathogen or tissue damage but sterile inflammation (inflammation without any infection) or persistent chronic inflammation can cause several autoimmune diseases even cancer. Our lab is mainly interested in looking at how inflammatory pathways are modulated gram-negative enteric bacteria. Gram-negative enteric bacteria cause gastroenteritis in infected individuals which could lead to mild to severe discomfort to life threatening situations. It could affect or change the life style of the infected person. Understanding of the pathogenesis pattern and working out the inflammatory immune signaling network are one of the main focus of our lab. As bacteria bring an arsenal of protein factors to manipulate the host system, understanding the role of these factors in modulation of host cellular responses is critical to detailed understanding of the bacterial pathogenesis and eventual better designing of vaccine and therapy. Towards understanding the role of gram-negative bacterial ligands towards disease pathogenesis and modulation of innate/inflammatory responses research of our lab currently focused on following aims:

• Characterization of Vibrio cholerae, Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio vulnificus outer membrane protein OmpU, Salmonella typhimurium outer membrane protein OmpV and Salmonella typhimurium translocation effector proteins and Vibrio cholerae cytolysin towards manipulation of host responses 

• Post-menopausal osteoporosis with special emphasis on understanding

·      the molecular mechanism of innate immune responses/inflammation;

·      the immune network;

·      effect of innate immune responses on adaptive response;

·      cell death pathway;

·      bacterial pathogenesis.