Research:

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)is the ability of a microorganism (like bacteria, viruses, and some parasites) to stop an antimicrobial (such as antibiotics, antivirals and antimalarials) from working against it. As a result, standard treatments become ineffective, infections persist and may spread to others(WHO). It is a pressing health hazard in India and our hospitals have high pervasiveness of multidrug resistant (MDR) pathogens. The problem is further compoundedbythe absence of proper characterization of spillage to the environment or environmental dissemination.My current and near-future goal is to work on antimicrobial resistance and to delve into host-commensal-pathogen interactions in infectious diseases using genome sequencing, phylogenetics, transcriptomics, and epidemiology.

Projects:  (extramurally funded)

Understanding the influence of exposure to nosocomial pathogens and antibiotic usage among neonates in determining infant nasal microbial colonization in preterm infants and infants born at term.

Hypothesis: Exposure to nosocomial pathogens and antibiotics can affect nasal colonization in infants.

Funding agency: Department of Science & Technology (DST), Govt. of India.

Selected Publications:

Bardhan, T., Chakraborty, M., Bhattacharjee, B.Bactericidal activity of Lactic acid against clinical, carbapenem-hydrolyzing, multi-drug resistant Klebsiellapneumoniae planktonic and biofilm-forming cells. Antibiotics (2019) 8(4): E181.

*Corresponding author

Bhattacharjee, B.*, Bardhan, T., Chakraborty, M., Basu, M.Resistance profiles and resistome mapping of multidrug resistant carbapenem-hydrolyzing Klebsiellapneumoniae strains isolated from the nares of preterm neonates.Int J Antimicrob Agents (2019)53(4):535-537.

*First and Corresponding author

Renzette, N., Pokalyuk, C., Gibson, L., Bhattacharjee, B., Schleiss, M.R., Hamprecht, K., Yamamoto, A.Y., Mussi-Pinhata, M.M., Britt, W.J., Jensen, J.D., Kowalik, T.F.Limits and patterns of cytomegalovirus genomic diversity in humans.ProcNatlAcadSci U S A. (2015) 112(30):E4120-8.

Bhattacharjee, B., Renzette, N., Kowalik, T.F. Evidence for Replication Competent Human Cytomegalovirus in Malignant Gliomas. J. Virol (2012) 12: 6815-6824.

Bhattacharjee, B., Sengupta, S. CpG methylation of HPV 16 LCR at E2 binding site proximal to P97 is associated with cervical cancer in presence of intact E2. Virology. (2006) 354(2):280-285.