Prof. J. S. Virdi did his B.Sc. (Hons.) and M.Sc. (Hons.) in Microbiology from Panjab University, Chandigarh. He completed his Ph.D. from Post-grad. Inst. of Med. Edu. & Res. (PGIMER), Chandigarh specializing in Immunology. Thereafter he served as Asst. Res. Officer (ICMR) and Pool Officer (CSIR) before joining as a regular faculty in the Department of Microbiology at University of Delhi South Campus. His main research interest has been the study of emerging water-borne pathogens including antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and their relevance to India. Work from his laboratory has unequivocally shown the presence of Yersinia enterocolitica (a food- and water-borne pathogen) in India. Y. enterocolitica was isolated from waste water, river and ground water, pork, pigs and diarrheic human patients. The biotype 1A strains isolated for India showed unique antibiotic resistance profiles and unusual expression of b-lactamases. Molecular characterization of Indian strains showed that only two clones were prevalent in India. The presence of enterotoxin (Yst B) gene in these strains indicated their public health significance. He has published more than fifty research papers in peer-reviewed journals, most of which report his laboratory’s work on Y. enterocolitica and water-borne pathogens.Prof. Virdi is a regular reviewer for research papers submitted to several National and International scientific journals in the field of Microbiology besides being Associate Editor of the Indian J. of Microbiology and Gut Pathogens. He has also been closely associated with curriculum development, training and writing of texts and teaching materials for Microbiology and Biotechnology courses of IGNOU, NISCAIR, NCERT and CBSE. He is life member of all the microbiological societies of India including member of the Central Council of the Association of Microbiologists of India. He has delivered several invited talks at National and International conferences on emerging and water-borne pathogens including his work on Y. enterocolitica. Recipient of university Gold Medal (Panjab University), INSA-visiting fellowship (Indian National Science Academy / INSA) & Y.S Narayanarao oration Award (Indian Council of Medical Research / ICMR), Prof. Virdi also teaches advanced level interdisciplinary courses on Microbial Pathogenicity and Immunology to post-graduate students of Microbiology, Biochemistry, Plant Molecular Biology & Genetics (till 2014) at University of Delhi South Campus Combating Antimicrobial Resistance through Point of Care Diagnostics One of the major reasons of the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the excessive use of antibiotics. It has been argued that development of rapid tests for detection of AMR has the potentiality to reduce the use of antibiotics substantially. The development of point of care (POC) diagnostics or point of care tests (POCT) will ensure accurate and quick treatment of infections, and reduction in the use of antibiotics. The POC tests / devices are simple, economical and require very less time to perform. These tests may be performed by the bedside of the patient, may require only a few minutes to perform, are technically very simple to perform and results may be interpreted unequivocally. Developing a POC test for rapid detection of AMR is a challenge. The techniques which are currently available for AMR testing are severely constrained due to long duration with respect to the turnaround time which may take minimum of 48-72 hours as it usually requires culturing the pathogen. The genomics based methods may completely circumvent the need to culture bacteria to determine resistance/susceptibility. The collaborating Departments of Microbiology and Biophysics at the University of Delhi South Campus (UDSC-AMR group) is developing resistance-gene array based method to detect the presence of resistance genes in the bacteria present in urinary tract infections (UTI). This would be coupled to an algorithm-based recommendations of the most appropriate antibiotic therapy in accordance with the WHO guidelines for the use of ‘access’, ‘watch’ and ‘reserve’ categories. A very large database of antibiotic resistance genes which is being updated regularly termed CARD (Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database) in conjunction with the in-house developed (Srivastava et al (2014) CBMAR (Comprehensive Beta-lactamase Molecular Annotation Resource) is being used to develop the resistance-genes-array based POC test for detection of AMR.
- Papers in database
- 1
- Years active
- 2021