I am a Ph.D. student in Animal Biosciences Department, OAC. I am from Kitchener, Ontario. I earned my B.Tech degree in Biotechnology from India and my M.Sc Degree from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. The early years of my career have been majorly involved in translational research in disease pathogenesis, drug development, and bacteriotherapy. For the past four years, I had been working in Nutreco-Trouw Nutrition, a global leader in animal health and nutrition, as Research and Development Technologist. Due to the global concern of increased antibiotic use and resistance in the food chain, novel strategies need to be developed, in order to efficiently sustain plant, animal and human health for feeding the future. Currently, in Dr. Julang Li’s lab, I am involved in characterizing and developing novel biotherapies to stabilize gut microbiome, majorly involving next-generation probiotics as well as antimicrobial peptides to improve gut health and completely replace the use of antibiotics in livestock. Excitingly, over the past year I have been able to screen and identify selected bacterial strains from novel niche, with strong antimicrobial and immune modulatory properties. With the HQP-award challenge component, I am able to collaborate with two different companies for in vivo training, application and technology transfer for my current project. I am thankful to the HQP program, which has fueled my confidence in developing new industrial and transferable skill sets. After the successful completion of my work, I plan to extend this research to a more advanced study of host-microbe interaction and involvement of gut microbiome in animal behaviour.
