Saba Imdad
Research Interests
Project research title: Optimised Production of the Bacteriocin peptides through Fermentation Technology and Heterologous Overexpression
Project objectives and global soceital challenge:The project will be tackling the rising issue of antimicrobial resistance, as a global societal challenge. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been described as a silent pandemic and resistance has been reported with virtually every antibiotic drug that has ever been developed. Alternative options can be derived from the microbiome, as its significance has been revealed to human health. Microbiome-derived bacteriocins are narrow-spectrum and have the potential to eradicate antibiotic-resistant pathogens, and at the same time inflict negligible collateral damage on the surrounding microbiota. But the major bottle neck in the exploitation of bacteriocins is their limited production. The goal is to optimize the fermentation potential of the native bacteriocin producers, and to over-express the bacteriocin peptides in a heterologous system to enhance its production by overcoming the rate-limiting steps.