Research

The primary research focus of the AMR lab at The AMRITA School of Biotechnology is on combating Antimicrobial Resistance using multiple approaches:

• Identification and characterization of novel anti-microbials targeting virulence
• Isolation, characterization and application of bacteriophages or cocktails of phages for environmental as well as potential clinical use – Phage Therapy
• Mutational analysis of the AMR genes of Gram-negative nosocomial pathogens 
• CRISPR-Cas9 based solutions to combat antibiotic resistance
• Understanding Persistence and its role in antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
• Studying the inter-relationship between virulence and antimicrobial resistance
• Characterization of the filamentous (Pf) phages in regional clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa
• Design and development of Point-of-Care diagnostics for early detection
• Surveillance of sewage samples to study the emergence of antimicrobial resistance patterns using metagenomics, meta transcriptomics and metabolomic approaches coupled to AI/ML tools/algorithms
• Development of host-directed therapies
• AI/ML strategies to predict emerging patterns of resistance

Starting in 2018, the Antimicrobial Resistance lab has been collaborating with the Tata Institute for Genetics and Society (TIGS) to combat MDR gram-negative pathogens. Our current focus is the characterization of bacteriophages and genome editing strategies to target MDR Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is classified as a critical priority pathogen by WHO.

Keywords: Biofilims, Quorum Sensing, Phage Therapy, Genome Editing, AI