The main objective of my study is to detect the presence of virulence associated genes, characterization of tcpA variants, and to study the role of SXT and integrons in conferring drug resistance in environmental isolates of V.cholerae.

My work proposes to identify and isolate novel promoters/ expression systems from psychrophilic bacteria. One of the major drawbacks of recombinant protein expression in bacteria esp. mesophilic , is the inability of the protein to reach its native conformation. Sometimes the protein itself could be toxic to the host, retarding its production and purification. It is at this juncture that low temperature expression systems and cold-inducible promoters come to forefront. These microbes are also a source of myriad enzymes that are cold inducible and hence have lots of industrial applications.

The permanently cold environments have been successfully colonized by a group of extremophilic microorganisms that are known as psychrophiles. In recent years extremophiles have been recognized as a valuable source of new bioactive molecules. Our aim is to explore novel antimicrobial compounds from bacteria isolated from Arctic as part of Indian Arctic Expedition

We are interested in Vibrio biofilm inhibition and potential biofilm inhibitors will be screened from mangrove Actinomycetes and its molecular mechanism of action will be explored. By exploring the mechanism of these bioactive compounds, more can be known about the bacterial behavior and could be used as alternative to currently used therapeutic agents as they do not provoke bacterial resistance but reduce pathogenic traits of bacteria.