Overview

Integrating metabolism with other cellular processes provides robustness enabling bacterial survival in their host. Therefore, unraveling the players and networks in metabolism is of tremendous importance to plan novel strategies for disabling pathogens and promoting the growth of commensals. In this direction, research in our laboratory is focused on identifying and characterising new players in metabolic pathways and understanding their interconnection with other cellular processes in bacteria, primarily Escherichia coli and Salmonella Typhimurium. We mainly focus on the metabolism of long-chain fatty acids and sugar acids, carbon sources implicated in the interaction of these enteric bacteria with their host. We use a diverse array of tools ranging from high-throughput approaches to candidate-level genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, and bioinformatics.