Research Interests

Research Interests

The main focus of my research is to study the molecular mechanisms of Pseudomonas aeruginosa pathogenesis. The significance of research on this organism stems from the fact that chronic bronchopulmonary infection with mucoid (Alg+) strains of P. aeruginosa is the leading cause of mortality in patients suffering from cystic fibrosis (CF). CF is an inherited disease among Caucasians, afflicting 1 in 2000 and 1 in 4700 live births in USA and Denmark, respectively. The mucoid strains produce copious amounts of the exopolysaccharide called alginate. My research should further the understanding of P. aeruginosa and improve antipseudomonal therapy in patients with cystic fibrosis.

My research can be broadly divided into the following areas:

Regulation of alginate production in P. aeruginosa
Regulation of antibiotic resistance
Biofilm analysis
Alternate Therapy

Other Related Research Interests

Computational Biology/Bioinformatics
Metagenomics
Forensics

Regulation of alginate production in P. aeruginosa

Phenotypic conversion
Biofilm
Chronic infection animal model
Alginate genes - Conflicts and Contradictions

Regulation of antibiotic resistance

Beta-lactam resistance
Biofilm
Proteomics

Biofilm analysis

alg and amp genes
Biofilm Image Processing (BIP)
Flow cells

Alternate Therapy

Ginseng therapy
Phage therapy

Computational Biology/Bioinformatics

Collaborator: Dr. Giri Narasimhan

http://www.cs.fiu.edu/~giri/bioinf/bioinf.html

Detection of HTH motifs

GYM 1.0: http://www.msci.memphis.edu/~giri/hth/index.html
GYM 2.0: http://www.cs.fiu.edu/~giri/bioinf/GYM2/welcome.html

Biofilm Image Processing

BIP: http://www.msci.memphis.edu/~giri/BIP/

Metagenomics

Soil Metagenomics
Sputum Metagenomics

Forensics

Nonhuman DNA Forensics
Soil Forensics