Department of Microbiology

Other Information

Co-curricular Activities

• All faculty and P. G. students actively involved in PUNE CHAPTER ASSOCIATION OF MICROBIOLOGIST.
• All faculty members and P. G. students actively participate in HOSPITAL INFECTION CONTROL SOCIETY PUNE which is regularly held at third Wednesday in RUBY HALL CLINIC.
• All faculty members and PGs actively participated in webinars, virtual workshops and Conferences.
• First place to Faculty (Dr. Chanda Vyawahare, Dr. Neetu Gupta, Dr. Sameena Khan,Dr. Swarupa Hatolkar, Dr. Jyoti Ajagunde) in design of Molecular Lab in ACCENDO 2020 workshop cum course conducted by SRM
• Vocational Excellence Award to Dr. Shahzad Mirza by Rotary Club 1st July 2020.
• Dr. Sahjid Mukhida JR1 In Department of Microbiology has presented poster titled “Detection of isoniazid mono-resistance in rifampicin sensitive MTB” at the NATCON 2020 75^th Conference of tuberculosis and chest diseases Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases in Covid Era and won first prize held on 18^th, 19^th, 20^th December 2020.

Major Achievements of the Department

Awards:

• Dr. Savita V Jadhav- Young Researcher Award-1st prize on 5th Sept 2014.
• Dr. Nabamita Chaudhari won the First Prize in oral presentation in the 2nd National conference of pediatrics association of India 31st October – 2nd November 2014, Burdwan, west Bengal
• Dr Nikunja Kumar Das, Assistant Professor, received Chief of the Army Staff award for the best published article titled ”Emergence of multidrug resistant enterococci at a tertiary care centre” in the field of Pathology, Microbiology, hematology & biochemistry for the year 2016 as “Co-author”.
• Mrs. Swarupa Hatolkar- Best poster award for “ Molecular Epidemiology: Drug Resistance and spoligotyping pattern of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from Western Maharashtra.” in 72nd National Conference of Tuberculosis and Chest diseases NATCON 17th Dec 2017.
• Mrs.Swarupa Hatolkar - Research Poster nominated for Mumbai-Belgaum prize for Mycobacteriology best poster (Molecular Genotyping of Drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis by spoligotyping from Western Maharashtra), MICROCON 2017, Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi, dated 22nd – 26th November 2017.
• Dr. Shahzad Mirza : Second Prize for Poster Presentation -“Role of CBNAAT in early and rapid detection of pulmonary and extra pulmonary tuberculosis and Rifampacin resistance in a tertiary care set up with special reference to pediatric cases”. “Annual Conference of Respiratory, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine” held on 22nd and 23rd December 2018 at Dr. D.Y. Patil Medical College Pimpri, Pune -18.
• Dr. Swarupa Hatolkar : First Prize for Oral Paper Presentation
• Molecular epidemiology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from Dr. D. Y. Patil Medical College, Pune. “Annual Conference of Respiratory, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine” held on 22nd and 23rd December 2018 at Dr. D.Y. Patil Medical College Pimpri, Pune -18.
• Dr. Savita V Jadhav received the 1st prize in best poster award category at International conference of Antimicrobial Resistance: ICAR 2018 , CSIR India and dept of Biotechnology Govt of India on 20th Jan 2018.
• Regional undergraduate Microbiology Quiz of Pune region (XXXIII MAHARASTRA CHAPTER CONFERENCE OF IAMM MAHAMICROCON-2017), conducted at Armed forces Medical College, Pune on 24/08/2017 and Secured 2nd Position.
  Ms. P. Deepthi
  Mr. Kiran John Koshy
• Regional undergraduate Microbiology Quiz of Pune region ( 9 Medical Colleges) XXIV MAHARASTRA CHAPTER CONFERENCE OF IAMM MAHAMICROCON-2018, conducted at Bharati Vidyapeeth Medical College , Pune on 24/08/2018 and Secured 2nd Position.
  Mr. Nilashis Dutta
  Ms. Jinisha Pahuja
• The following II/III MBBS students have participated in the Regional undergraduate Microbiology Quiz of Pune, region (9 Medical Colleges), XXV MAHARASTRA CHAPTER CONFERENCE OF IAMM MAHAMICROCON-2019, conducted at Armed Forces Medical College , Pune on 28/08/2019 and Secured 4th Position.
  Prince Saha
  Nishtha Gadia
• On 5th September 2019 the following faculty members got appreciation certificate by Dr.D.Y.Patil Vidhyapeeth, Pune:
• First place to Faculty (Dr. Chanda Vyawahare, Dr. Neetu Gupta, Dr. Sameena Khan,Dr. Swarupa Hatolkar, Dr. Jyoti Ajagunde) in design of Molecular Lab in ACCENDO 2020 workshop cum course conducted by SRM
• Vocational Excellence Award to Dr. Shahzad Mirza by Rotary Club 1st July 2020.
• In the MahaMicroCon-2022 XXVI-Maharashtra Chapter Conference of IAMM .Theme: “Molecular Epidemiology” held at BJ Government Medical College,Pune on the 17^th and 18^th of September 2022.
  1. Dr. N. R. Gandham-Professor and HOD of the department of Microbiology chaired a session and was also Judge for oral paper Presentation.
  2. Dr. Shalini Bhaumik, JRIII presented a paper for “Dr Late P. M. Khare Junior Best Research Paper” Award paper presentation. Best Three papers including hers were short listed from 43 papers for the same.

• Department of Microbiology successfully participated in the Microbiology External Quality Assessment Scheme, Basic Bacteriology and Serology: Tier 1 under the aegis of Indian Association of Medical Microbiologists (IAMM) for the year 2021 organized by the department of Clinical Microbiology Christian Medical College Vellore-632 004 , Secured 97.1% in the 109^th EQAS cycle.
• Dr.Sahjid Mukhida, JR II in the Department of Microbiology, received approval for Grant-in-aid for his thesis proposal entitled “Evaluation of Rapid Diagnostic Methods For Molecular Characterization of MDR Genes From Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Isolates From Western Part of India” under NTEP by the State TB Cell .Govt. of Maharashtra ,Jt. Director and Health Services (Leprosy and TB), Pune and granted RS. 30,000/- for the research activity.
• The department of Microbiology participated in the External Quality Assurance Program (EQAS January-2022) for Medical Mycology at Mycology Division, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, (PGI).
  The department scored 100% with “excellent” performance for the same.
• Jyoti Ajagunde, Assistant Professor in the department of Microbiology has been felicitated with memento on occasion of National Doctor Day 1^st July 2022 organized by Inner Wheel Club of Nigdi Pride Chapter No.5907 International Inner wheel Theme 2022-23 Work Wonders
• A Webinar on “Monkeypox, What we Know and what we Don’t –A practical guide” successfully organized by the department of Microbiology and Dermatology on 3^rd August 2022 at 7pm on virtual platform through zoom app. Speakers were Dr.Rajeev Jayadevan, Vice Chairman, Kerala State, IMA Research Cell, Dr. Aravind R., HOD Infectious, Govt. Medical College, Trivandrum and Dr. Vinod Scaria, Principal Scientist, CSIR-IGIB, New Delhi

Publications Summary

Publications in High Impact Factor Journals

• Arif Hussain, Amit Ranjan, Nishant Nandanwar, Anshu Babbar, Savita Jadhav and Niyaz Ahmed. “Genotypic and Phenotypic Profiles of Escherichia coli Isolates Belonging to Clinical Sequence Type 131 (ST 131), Clinical Non- ST131, and Fecal Non- ST131 Lineages from India” International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 2014: 58(12); 7240. Impact factor-6.66
• Vivek. V. Manade, Arjun Kakrani, Siddharth N. Gadage, Rabindra Nath Misra.” Brucella endocarditis in a non-endemic area presenting as pyrexia of unknown origin”. BMJ Case Rep 2014doi: 10.1136/bcr-2014-203555.pp1-5. “Impact factor-23.6
• A.Acharya, S. Vaniawala, P. Shah, , R. N. Misra, M. Wani. Pratap N.Mukhopadhyaya “Development, Validation and Clinical Evaluation of a Low Cost In-House HIV-1 Drug Resistance Genotyping Assay for Indian Patients”. PLOS ONE 2014:9(8); e102790 Impact factor-5.6
• Amit Ranjan, SabihaShaik, Arif Hussain, Nishant Nandanwar, Torsten Semmler, Savita Jadhav, Lothar H. Wieler. “Genomic and Functional portrait of a highly virulent, CTX-M-15- Producing H30-Rx subclone of Escherichia coli sequence Type 131 International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 2015: 59(10); P-6087-6095. Impact factor-6.66
• Savita Jadhav, Rabindra Nath Misra, Nageswari Gandham, Kalpana Angadi, Chanda Vyawahare, Neetu Gupta, Deepali Desai. “Pandemic of Escherichia coli clone O25:H4-ST131 producing CTX-M-15 extended spectrum-β- lactamase-as serious cause of multidrug resistance extraintestinal pathogenic E.coli infections in India”. Critical Care 2016;20suppl1:p9 Impact factor-5.3
• Amit Ranjan ,Sabiha Shaik, Nishant Nandanwar, Arif Hussain ,Sumeet K. Tiwari,Torsten Semmler,Savita Jadhav, Lothar H. Wieler,Munirul Alam, Rita R. Colwell,Niyaz Ahmed .”Comparative Genomics of Escherichia coli Isolated from Skin and Soft Tissue and Other Extraintestinal Infections”. Journal of American Society for Microbiology 2017:8(4);1-9. Impact factor-6.68
• Swarupa M. Hatolkar, Rabindra N. Misra, Rajesh Mahato, Savita Jadhav Whole-Genome Sequencing and Annotation of a Drug- Resistant Extrapulmonary clinical lsolate of Beijing Genotype Mycobacterium tuberculosis from Pune, India.” Journal of American Society for Microbiology 2018:6(25);1-2. Impact factor-6.68.
• An article Published by Dr.N.R.Gandham, Professor in the department of Microbiology has been quoted in the chapter titled “Protothecosis and chlorellosis in the post graduate “Textbook of Medical Mycology” by Jagdish Chander 4th addition -2018.
• Gupta A, Bhoyar RC, Mirza SB, Jolly B, Senthival V, Shamnath A etal. SARS-Cov-2 vaccine breakthrough infection following a previous infection in a health care worker. Journal of Infection; 2021; 4 (4); 1139-47.
• Yadav PD, Sahay RR, Agrawal S, Shete A, Adsul B, Tripathy S, et al. Clinical, immunological and genomic analysis of the post vaccinated SARS-CoV-2 infected cases with Delta derivatives from Maharashtra, India, 2021. J Infect. 2022 Jul;85(1):e26-e29. doi: 10.1016/j.jinf.2022.04.014. Epub 2022 Apr 8. Impact Factor : 38.637
• Gupta A, Bhoyar R, Mirza S, Jolly B, Senthivel V, Shamnath A, et al. SARS-CoV-2 vaccine breakthrough infection following a previous infection in a healthcare worker. J Infect. 2022 Mar;84(3):418-467. doi: 10.1016/j.jinf.2021.10.008. Epub 2021 Oct 19. PMID: 34678389; PMCID: PMC8523545. Impact Factor : 38.637
• Mukhida S, Khan S, Kannuri S, Mali V, Bhaumik S, Das NK. Wearing a white coat in theory class during medical school, is it justified? reply to development and validation of the knowledge, attitude and practice questionnaire (LAUNDERKAP) regarding white coat use among medical students during clinical practice. Am J Infect Control. 2022 Aug;50(8):966-967. doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2022.04.009. PMID: 35908831. Impact Factor : 4.303

CMEs, Conferences, Workshops, Training Programmes

All faculty members updated their knowledge by participating in CME,conferences, workshops and training programmes. List of some important conferences and programmes are

Research Achievement

• Submission of three whole genome sequences and 156 partial sequences for MDR and XDR TB genes to NCBI, USA.
• 40 spoligotypes credited to SITVIT international database

Future Plans

• To undertake collaborative funded projects, FDPs and enhance publications.
• To become a Referral Centre for Molecular Biology for other institutes in Pune region.
• To set up a state of art Whole Genome sequencing facility.

Hospital Infection Control

Hospital Infection Control Committee with defined composition, roles and responsibilities has been established to implement policies, guidelines, recommendations and working protocols. It includes activities and practices under the programmes with hand hygiene and Standard Precautions as key components. Educational programmes for all HCWs in the use of such policies and guidelines are also conducted by the committee. Monitoring process for HCWs health to identify and prevent staff-to-patient and patient-to-staff spread of infection is done which includes programmes like Hepatitis B Vaccination of all HCW`s.The Committee is responsible for incorporating Antimicrobial Management programs or Antimicrobial Stewardship programs.