Draft:Indranil Biswas

Indranil Biswas - Microbiologist

Indranil Biswas is an Indian American microbiologist and professor in the Department of Microbiology, Molecular Genetics, and Immunology at the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC) in Kansas City, United States.. His research focuses on bacterial pathogenesis, antimicrobial discovery, and the molecular mechanisms underlying infectious diseases. His work contributes to the understanding of microbial physiology and host–pathogen interactions in clinically significant bacteria

Education and training

Biswas attended Lalgopal High School in Ranaghat, West Bengal, and Krishnagar Government College in Krishnagar, West Bengal. He earned a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Agricultural Science from Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya (BCKV), Mohanpur, India. He subsequently completed a Master of Science in biotechnology at Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, India.

Biswas received his Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Paris VII (Paris Diderot) while conducting research at the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) in Jouy-en-Josas, France. Following his doctoral training, he carried out postdoctoral research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, United States.

Career

Following his postdoctoral training, Biswas held research positions at the National Centre for Cell Science in Pune, India. He subsequently served in faculty positions at Emory University and the University of South Dakota before joining the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC).

At KUMC, he serves as a professor in the Department of Microbiology, Molecular Genetics, and Immunology . In addition to his research and teaching responsibilities, he has held administrative and curriculum leadership roles within graduate biomedical programs at KUMC. He also serves as an adjunct faculty member at Christian Medical College, Vellore, India.

Research

Biswas’s research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis and antimicrobial discovery . His work has primarily examined Gram-positive streptococci, major human pathogens responsible for diseases such as pneumonia, meningitis, endocarditis, and necrotizing fasciitis . His laboratory investigates the regulation and function of surface-associated and secreted virulence factors, with particular emphasis on the role of proteases in virulence expression and biofilm formation, including in Streptococcus mutans . He also studies two-component signal transduction systems that control virulence gene expression in response to host-associated signals .

More recently, his research has expanded to multidrug-resistant Gram-negative pathogens, including Acinetobacter baumannii and Klebsiella pneumoniae, members of the ESKAPE group of clinically significant bacteria. His laboratory examines mechanisms of virulence, stress adaptation, and persistence, including desiccation tolerance in A. baumannii, and develops genetic tools to facilitate pathogenesis studies. In parallel, he is engaged in antimicrobial discovery efforts, collaborating to identify and characterize novel small-molecule compounds targeting drug-resistant bacterial pathogens.

Honors and awards

Biswas's research has been supported by competitive funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other agencies. He has received several international honors recognizing his contributions to microbiology and his involvement in research and academic exchange programs.

• Faculty Research Investigator Award (KU Med Center, USA, 2011)
• Fulbright–Nehru Senior Research Scholar (United States; 2013)
• ASM–IUSSTF: Indo–U.S. Professorship Award (United States/India; 2018)
• Jean d'Alembert Senior Scholar Program (Université Paris-Saclay, France; 2022)
• Fulbright–Nehru Academic/Professional Excellence Scholar (United States; 2023)
• Visiting Advanced Joint Research Faculty (VAJRA) Fellow, ANRF/DST (India; 2024)

Publications

Biswas has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles in the field of microbiology. He has also edited a book on Acinetobacter baumannii: Methods and Protocol by Humana Press. Some selected publications:

Biswas, I., Gruss, A., Ehrlich, S. D, Maguin, E. (1993). High-efficiency gene inactivation and replacement system for gram-positive bacteria. J Bacteriol, 175(11), 3628–35. PMID 8501066

Biswas, I., Maguin, E., Ehrlich, S. D, Gruss, A. (1995). A 7-base-pair sequence protects DNA from exonucleolytic degradation in Lactococcus lactis. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 92 (6), 2244–8. PMID: 7892255

Biswas, I., Yamamoto, A., Hsieh, P. (1998). Branch migration through DNA sequence heterology. J Mol Bio, 279(4), 795–806. PMID 9642061

Biswas, I., Hsieh, P. (1997). Interaction of MutS protein with the major and minor grooves of a heteroduplex DNA. J Biol Chem, 272(20), 13355–64. PMID 9148958

Biswas, I., Scott, J. R (2003). Identification of rocA, a positive regulator of covR expression in the group A streptococcus. J Bacteriol, 185(10), 3081–90. PMC154078, 12730168

Biswas, I., Mohapatra, S. S (2012). CovR alleviates transcriptional silencing by a nucleoid-associated histone-like protein in Streptococcus mutans. J Bacteriol, 194(8), 2050–61. PMID 22343292

Hossain, M. S, Biswas, I. (2012). An extracelluar protease, SepM, generates functional competence-stimulating peptide in Streptococcus mutans UA159. J Bacteriol 194(21), 5886–5896. PMID: 22923597

Jana, B., Tao, L., Biswas, I. (2016). Strain-Dependent Recognition of a Unique Degradation Motif by ClpXP in Streptococcus mutans. mSphere, 1(6). PMID  27981232

Shankar, M., Hossain, M. S, Biswas, I. (2017). Pleiotropic regulation of virulence genes in Streptococcus mutans by a conserved small protein, SprV. J Bacteriol, pii: JB.00847-16. PMID: 28167518

Dhaked, HPS., Cao, L., Biswas, I. (2021). Redox Sensing Modulates the Activity of the ComE Response Regulator of Streptococcus mutans. J Bacteriol, 203(23), e0033021. PMID: 34516285