AFRUJA KHAN

Ms
AFRUJA
KHAN

Research Scholar
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata
Email 
afrujakhan08 [at] gmail.com
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Biography
I am Afruja Khan, a fifth year Ph.D. student under the supervision of Dr. Amirul Islam Mallick, Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, India. My research topic is "Naturally secreted outer membrane vesicles of Campylobacter jejuni: Role in host-microbe interaction". I completed my M.Sc. in Zoology from Maulana Azad College, affiliated with the University of Calcutta, and my B.Sc. in Zoology from Vidyanagar College, affiliated with the University of Calcutta. I am a dedicated and enthusiastic biologist with a passion for scientific discovery and research. I am highly passionate towards my work, and apart from that, I feel that I search for artistic aspects in my life as well.
Research interests
My research interest is to develop an outer membrane-vesicles (OMVs)-based vaccine strategy against Campylobacter jejuni in poultry.
Projects you're working on
Naturally secreted outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) from gut microbes carry diverse cargo, including proteins, nucleic acids, toxins, and many unidentified secretory factors. Bacterial OMVs can shuttle molecules across different cell types as a generalised secretion system, facilitating bacterial pathogenicity and survival. Numerous mucosal pathogens, including Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni), share a mechanism of harmonised secretion of major virulence factors. Intriguingly, as a common gut pathogen, C. jejuni lacks some classical virulence-associated secretion systems; alternatively, it often employs nanosized lipid-bound OMVs as an intensive strategy to deliver toxins, including secretory proteins, into the target cells. My research focused on understanding how the biophysical and compositional attributes of natural OMVs of C. jejuni regulate their cellular interactions to induce a biologically relevant host response, and to check the vaccine potential of OMVs against C. jejuni in chickens model.
Discipline
Bacteriology Cellular biology Molecular biology Virology
Host species
Poultry
Pathogen
Bacteria BacteriaE. coli Viruses VirusesInfluenza virus
Stage of vaccine development
Vaccine delivery