Enteric Microbiology

The Enteric Microbiology Laboratory conducts research in the development and application of phenotypic and molecular techniques to identify and characterize diarrhoeagenic organisms from clinical sources and the environment. The techniques used in this Laboratory include gel electrophoresis (conventional agarose gel electrophoresis, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis), nucleic acid preparation, hybridization using non-radioactive probes, ribotyping, oligonucleotide preparation by Oligo 1000 DNA Synthesizer, DNA amplification by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and fluorescent actin-staining test (FAST). Diagnostic techniques routinely used include conventional bacteriological culture method, ELISA, tissue culture assay, phage isolation and characterization, colony blot hybridization, DNA probe and PCR assays for rapid identification of diarrhoeal pathogens. Genetic fingerprinting of pathogenic bacteria is done using plasmid analysis, enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus-PCR (ERIC-PCR), random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD), PFGE, Ribotyping, PCR-RFLP, RFLP of O-Ag sequence by long PCR as an aid to epidemiological studies. Experiments with animal model for studying mechanisms of pathogenicity are conducted and antisera for bacterial identification are raised in this laboratory. Extensive studies are being carried out by the investigators of this laboratory on the phenotypic and molecular epidemiology of Vibrio cholerae, V. paraha emolyticus, Campylobacter, E .coli (especially on Shiga-toxin-producing E, coli), Shigella, Salmonella, Aeromonus, and Helicobacter pylori. Studies on the mechanisms of antibiotic resistance of Shigella and Salmonella typhi are also ongoing.

Staff