Dr. Susweta Das
Associate Professor
Dr. Susweta Das is working as an Associate Professor - Biotechnology in the School of Basic and Applied Sciences. She has done her post-graduation from North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) and carried out her PhD research work in Bacteriology 2 Lab, ICAR-NIVEDI (formerly PD_ADMAS), Bangalore and part of her doctoral work in Transcription and Disease Lab, Molecular Biology and Genetics Unit, JNCASR, Bangalore with fellowship in World Bank funded NAIP project.
Her major research focus was to delineate host pathogen interaction by understanding the pathogen biology ((E. coli, S. aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, CoNS etc) and underpinning the host immune response in context to bovine mastitis
Her doctoral research work deciphered the molecular epidemiology of Staphylococcus aureus causing bovine mastitis and delineated the molecular events in S. aureus intramammary infection using in vivo mice model. It was indicative through her study that epigenetic modifiers can emerge as potential therapeutic target for mastitis and/or other bacterial disease. Further, her post-doctoral research span on gaining frontier insights of underlying mechanism of resistance to antibiotics in ESKAPE pathogens and their dissemination potential.
She is currently carrying forward research to strengthen her understanding on host- pathogen interaction and develop therapeutic solutions for bacterial (ESKAPE) infections to combat antibiotic resistance crisis. Her research group is mainly working on natural compounds as adjuvants to unlock bacterial resistance to existing arsenal of antibiotics and alternative strategies (phytochemicals, bacteriophages, anti-biofilm agents, and antimicrobial peptides) to combat MDR ESKAPE superbugs. Besides, she is also exploring the world of microbes to capture bioactive compounds useful for human and animal welfare. She has guided > 12 MSc projects and apparently supervising two PHD students (ongoing).
She was awarded State merit prize for getting first position in the state in her UG, Gold medal (MSc), Young Scientist- Dr M. N. Kulkarni memorial award -IAVMI 2012 for best research paper presentation and 15 best poster paper presentation awards in different conferences. She has > 20 research publications in peer-reviewed international journals with a cumulative impact factor of 50.