BACTERIOLOGY
Research foci include emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, including zoonotic diseases, in the areas of diagnosis, antibiotic resistance, vaccine development, disease modelling (epidemiology), vector-borne diseases, infectious diseases of cold-water aquaculture and wildlife, veterinary pharmacology, and disease surveillance and spatial epidemiology as applied to production animals, wildlife (including free-roaming dogs), and aquatic species.
Research on biofilm development, gene regulation of virulence factors, and vaccine and diagnostic test development is being led by Dr. Tom Inzana.Dr. Soo Jin Jeon is working on bacterial uterine infections of dairy cows, and the genetics and bacterial infections of aquatic species. Dr. Reta Abdi investigates antimicrobial resistance in bacteria, the role of membrane proteins in resistance to antimicrobial agents, and development of alternative therapies to antibiotics.
VIROLOGY AND MYCOLOGY
The focus of Dr. Maged Hemida's research has been the investigation of emerging and re-emerging viral diseases in the context of the One Health, with an emphasis on corona viruses. His work involves studying virus/host interactions, developing novel diagnostic assays, and development of novel viral vaccines.
Parasitology
Parasitology research, led by Dr. Umer Chaudhry, focuses on parasite epidemiology, antiparasitic drug resistance, and developing high-throughput platforms for speciation and early resistance detection, with implications for the broader advance of molecular diagnostics. The primary goal of the research is to investigate the effect of selection pressures, fitness cost, and gene flow on the emergence and spread of antiparasitic drug resistance. The research theme also includes knowledge of the multiplicity of parasitic infections, a better understanding of host-parasite relationships, host management, and environmental factors in disease epidemiology.