Kaushiki Mazumdar

I possess a strong background in Medical Microbiology in the field of antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy. During my Ph.D. program at Jadavpur University, India, I worked extensively with pathogenic bacteria including Mycobacterium tuberculosis, studied their role in health and disease, the reactions of the host (mouse model) to infection, and detection, control and anti-microbial treatment of clinical isolates using standard approved techniques. I gained experience in immunology while I did my early postdoctoral training in one of the prestigious clinical laboratories in the School of Medicine, Seoul National University, South Korea where I was trained to use various cell culture systems. I was involved in a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) DNA vaccine project to investigate the action of the viral proteins in animal models. As an outcome, antigenic N protein fragments that have implications for providing basic information for the design of a DNA vaccine against SARS-CoV were successfully identified. Further, during my stay in Tulane University, USA, I was involved as a key person for developing non-human primate model of celiac disease, a lifelong immune disease of the small intestine. Currently, I am involved in projects related to vaccine immunology and evaluation of immunogenicity of various vaccines to identify their efficacy and correlate of protection. Our group at University of Maryland, USA studies the role of antigen-specific multi-functional memory T and B cells as well as functional antibodies in protection against human diseases caused by Salmonella, Shigella, Norovirus, Ebola, etc.