Research Projects

Mycobacterium abscessus is a rapidly growing mycobacterium that causes community and nosocomial infections. Biofilms, a complex extracellular polymeric matrix, are created by bacteria to protect themselves from harsh environments. These biofilms cause serious public health issues due to their resistance to antimicrobials and pose infections in medical devices. Over 80% of all infectious diseases are associated with biofilm formation, and their roles are unknown. The study aims to construct GFP-transcriptional regulator promoter fusion libraries of all 297 TR genes and study their GFP expression under these putative promoters at different stages of M. abscessus biofilm. The roles will be validated using qRT-PCR. After obtaining the TR gene pool, six TR genes will be selected for knockout and complementation studies. These mutants will be studied for susceptibility assays and various phenotypical assays, and under various stresses like pH, heat, osmotic pressure, oxidative stress, and antibiotics. Biofilm transcriptomics will be performed to understand their roles in antibiotic resistance and other stress-related pathways. The study will identify important transcriptional regulators and their mechanistic insight, which express differentially under various biofilm stages of M. abscessus. This will help design vaccine strains with protective efficacy and identify a new drug target to control biofilm formation from planktonic cells.