Environmental microbiology

The Environmental Microbiology laboratory conducts research on the ecology and epidemiology of V. cholerae.

Collaborative studies with international partners seek to:

• determine whether similar environmental factors that contribute to epidemics of cholera in Bangladesh also exist in Africa (Mozambique)
• transfer technology from ICDDR,B to other national institutes to combat cholera and other diarrhoeal diseases that occur at regular intervals
• determine whether V. cholerae O1 can form biofilms in the aquatic environment to survive during the inter-epidemic periods
• determine the temporal dynamics of gene expression and regulation under the different environmental conditions, to establish an in situ incubation experiment in Bangladesh that measures gene expression in bacteria as a function of seasonal variation in the environmental conditions in natural systems.
• investigate the role of physicochemical parameters.