Research

Why?

The purpose of our lab and the work we do is to make discoveries and solve problems that will benefit and / or be of value to all life in whatever small way possible. We work in a closely knit, inclusive team with undying passion for the science we pursue and a strong work ethic.

What do we do?

The Microbial Physiology Group has two major focus areas:

• • • Virulence regulation in pathogens and anti-virulence strategies

    • Microbial communities and their dynamics

Virulence regulation

Have you ever wondered how something as minuscule as a bacteria, can bring down organisms as complex as humans? This is achieved by highly controlled regulatory processes, which allow precise expression of genes essential for causing disease. Called virulence factors, the products encoded by these genes help the bacteria circumvent our immune system and cause disease.

Our group is interested in studying and understanding these regulatory processes in pathogenic bacteria. Speaking of bacterial pathogens, we study virulence regulation in hospital-associated pathogens like Klebsiella pneumoniae and Enterobacter cloacae, which are not very commonly known bacteria. Most of the infections caused by hospital-associated pathogens occur in health-care environments. Patients who contract these infections suffer from infections of the respiratory tract, urinary tract, blood stream, soft tissues etc. In a smart move, hospital-associated pathogens are rapidly acquiring resistance to various antibiotics that are routinely used in therapy. This means that it is becoming increasingly difficult to treat infections caused by these bacteria.

This is where we enter the picture. We take a two-pronged approach to tackle this problem:

• • • Study the intricate regulatory processes that control virulence in hospital-associated pathogens to expand our knowledge about the enemy that we are fighting

    • Study the virulence factors of hospital-associated pathogens to assess if they can be affected to impact the virulence of the pathogen

Microbial Communities

Microbial communities exist in diverse locations and perform key functions in these locations. For example, the human body, plant structures and even seemingly inhospitable sites can serve as colonizable locations for microbes. Often, communities as a whole and individual members of the communities interact with their surroundings and are often impacted by their environment.

Our group is interested to study communities that live in the human gut and influence health and disease in humans. Particularly, we are interested in understanding how microbial communities within us respond to changes in our diet, environment and exposures. As part of the Thar DESIGNS (Desert EcoSystem Innovations Guided by Nature and Selection) initiative of the Jodhpur City Knowledge and Innovation Cluster, we are also studying the microbial communities that inhabit the biological soil crusts of the Thar desert to better understand their role as ecological engineers and to obtain design principles inspired by these communities for survival in a hostile environment.