Antimicrobial Resistance · Drug Repurposing
I study how Staphylococcus aureus uses efflux pumps and their transcriptional regulators to survive antibiotic pressure — and how approved drugs can be repurposed to shut those pumps down and resensitise multidrug-resistant strains to existing therapies.
Affiliated with
About
My work sits at the interface of bacterial gene regulation and antimicrobial drug discovery — using mechanism to find practical ways of reversing resistance rather than only describing it.
How do multidrug-resistant staphylococci coordinate efflux pump expression through regulators such as MgrA, and can that regulatory layer be pharmacologically disabled to restore the activity of antibiotics that already exist?
Efflux is a first line of intrinsic resistance: it lowers intracellular drug concentration, buys time for stable resistance to emerge, and blunts otherwise excellent antibiotics. Inhibiting efflux is therefore a route to resensitising resistant organisms without waiting for an entirely new drug class.
I screen approved-drug and LOPAC libraries for efflux and biofilm inhibition, then follow the mechanism down to transcription, protein–ligand binding, and proton motive force — and validate the best combinations in murine infection models.
Mentorship & Supervision
Alongside my own projects I have guided doctoral and master's researchers through experimental design, laboratory technique, troubleshooting, and data interpretation — from first MIC plate to figure-ready analysis.
Research Interests
Training & Positions
Pre-clinical efficacy and PK/PD validation of Montelukast–Moxifloxacin combination therapy against MDR S. aureus sepsis, including clinical isolate screening, systemic murine models, and immunomodulatory correlates of synergy.
Thesis: Targeting Efflux-Mediated Drug Resistance in S. aureus to Enhance the Therapeutic Potential of Existing Antibiotics. Held CSIR Junior and Senior Research Fellowships.
Selected Publications
First-author, co-first, review, and collaborative papers, newest first. Manuscripts in preparation and under review are listed at the end.
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Identifies the approved leukotriene antagonist Montelukast as an efflux pump modulator that restores antibiotic susceptibility in MDR S. aureus.
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Repurposes two approved azole antifungals as efflux pump inhibitors that resensitise multidrug-resistant staphylococci to existing antibiotics.
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Characterises 10058-F4 as a biofilm inhibitor in MDR S. aureus and maps its effect on biofilm architecture and matrix components.
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Reviews the staphylococcal efflux landscape and evaluates where inhibitor development is most likely to translate into clinical benefit.
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Shows thymol acting on both biofilm formation and efflux activity in mycobacteria, supporting dual-target natural-product adjuvants.
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Links ajoene's antimycobacterial and antibiofilm activity to efflux modulation together with reactive oxygen species generation.
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Assesses the ecological potential of free-living amoebae as bacterial predators in nutrient-enriched treated wastewater, pairing experimental data with machine learning-assisted analysis.
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Positions adapalene as a broad transcriptional repressor of efflux systems, restoring β-lactam activity against methicillin-resistant strains.
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Tests the calcium channel blocker amlodipine as an efflux pump inhibitor capable of recovering β-lactam efficacy in MRSA.
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Screens marine cyanobacterial metabolites as efflux inhibitors in clinically relevant resistant isolates, pairing in vitro assays with docking analysis.
View full bibliography on Google Scholar
Author position is shown in bold. ORCID: 0000-0003-0439-5065
Intellectual Property
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Experimental Skills
From primary screen to in vivo validation, with the biophysics and imaging in between.
Screening of FDA-approved and LOPAC compound libraries for efflux and biofilm inhibition. Identified Montelukast, sertaconazole, and oxiconazole as potent EPIs and 10058-F4 as a biofilm inhibitor.
MIC and MBC determination to CLSI/EUCAST, E-test, checkerboard synergy, growth curves, resazurin viability, and time-kill kinetics for antibiotic–adjuvant combinations.
Cloning, recombinant expression, Western blotting, qRT-PCR profiling of efflux and biofilm genes and their regulators, and EMSA to resolve protein–DNA interactions.
Recombinant protein purification, circular dichroism, isothermal titration calorimetry, and fluorimetric protein–drug binding studies applied to MgrA and related regulators.
Crystal violet formation and dispersion assays, CLSM and STED with WGA-FITC, SYPRO Ruby, DAPI and acridine orange, plus SEM and fluorescence microscopy of matrix architecture.
Multi-parameter cytometry on BD Accuri C6 Plus and Beckman Coulter CytoFLEX — SYTO9/PI viability and DiOC2 membrane potential to separate bactericidal from bacteriostatic action.
A549 and HEK293T culture with STR authentication and mycoplasma testing; MTT assays for CC₅₀ determination and compound safety profiling.
Subcutaneous S. aureus skin infection in BALB/c mice, G*Power-based sample sizing, CFU/g tissue burden quantification, and pharmacodynamic readouts of combinations.
GraphPad Prism and Excel for hypothesis testing, ANOVA, regression and survival analysis, with power analysis to keep in vivo studies adequately powered and properly controlled.
BSL-2 and BSL-3 containment practice with strict protocol adherence, including COVID-19 diagnostic operations and handling of highly pathogenic organisms.
Recognition
2026 — “Montelukast restores fluoroquinolone susceptibility in multidrug-resistant S. aureus by modulating the PknB–RsbU–MgrA regulatory axis.” Department of Bioscience & Biotechnology, February 2026.
2025 — awarded for research contributions in bacteriology and antimicrobial resistance.
2019 — national doctoral fellowship examination, India.
2018 — national postgraduate and doctoral entrance examination, India.
Poster presentations also include the 3rd International Conference on Antimicrobial Resistance, Novel Drug Discovery and Vaccine Development (SRM University Delhi-NCR, 2024) and the QUAD mini-symposium at BRIC-ILS.
Contact
Correspondence
Bacterial Cell Division & Antimicrobial Resistance Lab
BRIC-Institute of Life Sciences
Nalco Square, Bhubaneswar, Odisha 751023
India
Email: osuvendu@gmail.com
Send an emailBRIC-Institute of Life Sciences, Nalco Square, Bhubaneswar.
Postdoctoral Search
I am actively seeking a postdoctoral position where I can extend my work on resistance mechanisms and antimicrobial development, and build toward an independent research programme.
CV, publication list, and research statement available on request.
Discuss an opportunityReferences
All three referees are at BRIC-Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar.
PhD Supervisor · Scientist-F
Bacterial Cell Division & Antimicrobial Resistance Lab
Scientific Advisor · Scientist-G
Genome Instability Laboratory
Doctoral Advisory Committee · Scientist-F
Molecular Virology Laboratory
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