I have practised in as many as four countries across three continents during my career as a Microbiologist. Although my forte over the years has been acute care Microbiology, I have embraced diverse roles outside my comfort zone across settings ranging from Public Health laboratories to fertility clinic-based laboratories.
During my tenure as a Clinical Microbiologist at ProvLab Calgary, Alberta, Canada I assumed the role of a Program Leader for HIV and other Blood borne viruses/ Viral Zoonoses/ Rabies/ Prion diseases/ Risk Group 4 viruses. Apart from this, I also dealt in molecular diagnostics for Transplant Virology.

Outside of N.America, much of my practice was devoted to acute care Microbiology at tertiary level laboratories across the the Asia-Pacific region. I am adept across a spectrum of diagnostic techniques from conventional culture-based tests to cutting-edge molecular biology techniques like Real Time PCR and 16 S rRNA. This hands-on approach with assays has proved indispensable for me while trouble shooting on the bench. My responsibilities include liaising with Infectious Diseases physicians and providing clinical input to specialist physicians from other disciplines as well as General Practitioners. I have also worked closely with institutional Antimicrobial Stewardship and Infection Control programs.
I currently hold an adjunct teaching position with the University of Calgary, Canada. I have enjoyed teaching Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Residents and I oversee the continuous learning process of laboratory scientists.
Part of my time is dedicated to research wherein I conceptualize, design and implement research projects. These have culminated in several first-author publications in peer-reviewed journals along with successful collaborations with both industry and academia. I have been actively involved in several multisite susceptibility studies.

Male

12-07-1977

Indian

Vancouver

Canada

Experienced (Non-Manager)

Accredited medical specialist

Clinical Microbiology, Public Health, Microbiology

Research has always been an important and rewarding aspect of my journey as a clinical microbiologist. The key areas of my active research are described as below:

A) Mycology
One of my research interests includes the study of local epidemiology of Candida blood stream infections (BSI). In a recent collaboration with the Department of Infectious Diseases, TTSH and the Department of Pharmacy, Singapore General Hospital, I have correlated clinical outcome with patient demographics, clinical risk factors and empirical antifungal treatment. Species specific susceptibility data has been generated while analyzing hotspot mutations like Fks1, Fks2 for the echinocandins.
I have performed a longitudinal surveillance of susceptibility among Candida spp. from BSI to echinocandins over a period of four consecutive years.
Also, I have investigated the emerging resistance to azoles among C. tropicalis across 2 neighboring tertiary care centres. I have simultaneously drawn attention to the futile practice of performing routine susceptibilities for C.albicans from BSI.
These projects have helped bridge the knowledge gap on the epidemiology of Candida BSI including resistance profiles prevalent locally. A significant portion of the work has been presented at CACMID-AMMI and Hospital Infection Society conferences.


a) Antimicrobial Resistance

I recently secured an industry sponsored research grant from Bayer Pharmaceuticals to investigate the susceptibility profiles of six gram positive pathogen groups to tedizolid, a novel oxazolidinone. The project compared the two microdilution methods namely, Etest and Sensititre broth in terms of Essential and Categorical Agreements. In this project I recruited a team of four technical staff to carry out hands on experiments on the in-vitro activity of the 2 oxazolidinones, linezolid and tedizolid, deriving the MIC50 and MIC90 for each pathogen group. This culminated in a publication in a peer reviewed journal as well as a Scientific Poster at an Overseas conference.

In a separate collaboration with Merck Sharp and Dohme, we have investigated the susceptibility among local strains of multi drug resistant gram negative pathogens to the novel antimicrobial, Ceftolozane-Tazobactam.

In another project, I have profiled carbapenemase producers by species, genotype (bla NDM-1, bla KPC and bla OXA-48) and site of infection to evaluate potential therapeutic options. In the course of this research, I have determined old antibiotics including fosfomycin and tigecycline to be active for site-specific infections due to Carbapenemase producers.

Virtus Diagnostics

Melbourne

Australia

Consultant Microbiologist

12-18-2024

2024 Eligible for certification with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in Medical Microbiology
2016 Fellowship of the Canadian College of Microbiologists (FCCM)
2016 Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Microbiology
2012 Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (FRCPA)
2012 Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists of the UK (FRCPath)
2007 MD Microbiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), India
2002 MBBS, University of Delhi(Maulana Azad Medical College)

English

Excellent

Clinical position, Laboratory position

Clinical Microbiology, Public Health, Microbiology

Consultant Microbiologist

Permanent, Temporary/contract/project

Full-time

18

North America, Europe, Australia

12-01-2025

Consultant Microbiologist with interest in diagnostics, research and teaching.