Dr Harisree Paramel Nair

Harisree is a molecular microbiologist and her primary research focuses on understanding environmental microbes using metagenomic methods. Her wider research interest includes antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and zoonotic pathogens. Her current research focuses on soil metagenomics of oilseed rape crops.

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Background

Harisree completed her PhD from Cochin University of Science and Technology (India) in 2016 for her research investigating the metagenome of marine and mangrove sediments, particularly focusing on phylogenetic diversity and characterisation of amylase obtained by functional screening. During her doctoral research, she also worked as a junior and senior research fellow in a Govt. of India funded research project to study the metagenome of marine sediments. Later, she joined the Indian Institute of Science as a Postdoctoral Fellow until 2018.

Harisree joined Anglia Ruskin University in 2019 as a Postdoctoral Research Associate with Dr Caray A Walker. Their research was focused on understanding the prevalence of enteric pathogens in wild birds and investigating potential antimicrobial resistance mechanisms. They have an ongoing project focusing on the surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in the Antarctic ecosystem in collaboration with the British Antarctic Survey. She joined as a Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences in 2021.

Spoken Languages

English

Malayalam

Research interests

• Environmental Microbiology
• Metagenomics
• Antimicrobial Resistance
• Zoonotic pathogens
• Bacterial virulence mechanisms
• Marine microbes
• Bacteriophages

Areas of research supervision

• Environmental Microbiology
• Metagenomics
• Antimicrobial Resistance

Teaching

• Module Leader for Laboratory Techniques in DNA manipulation
• Contributes to General Microbiology, Microbial Pathogenicity, Molecular Cell Biology and Forensic Biology

Qualifications

• PhD in Molecular Microbiology under the Faculty of Science, Department of Biotechnology, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kerala, India
• MSc in Biotechnology, St. Berchmans College, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India
• BSc in Biological Techniques, Union Christian College, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India

Memberships, editorial boards

• Member of the Microbiology Society
• Member of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC)

Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange

Research grants:

2022: Principal Investigator on Research development support grant for the project entitled “Metagenomics to unravel soil microbiome in oilseed rape crops for sustainable agriculture” (£10,000)

2020-2021: Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded to undertake a research project under the supervision of Dr Caray Walker investigating multidrug resistant bacteria in the South East, London and East of England regions (GBP £53,000)

Jan 2020-May 2020: School of Life Sciences QR-funded short project entitled “Prevalence of multidrug resistance Enterobacteriaceae in wild birds in the South East, London and East of England Regions” (GBP £17,977)

2017-2019: Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded to undergo research in Indian Institute of Science for her project on mud volcano sediments by Kerala Biotechnology Commission, Kerala State Council for Science Technology and Environment, Govt. of Kerala, India (INR 9,44,800/-)

Summer studentships:

2022: Co-supervisor on Research, Innovation and Development Office Undergraduate Summer Research Grant for Lauren Chater - Wild birds as propagators of antimicrobial resistance - £2000 (stipend)

2021: Co-supervisor on Research, Innovation and Development Office Undergraduate Summer Research Grant for Kerri Southgate - Investigating the prevalence of zoonotic bacterial pathogens in dog faeces collected from recreational areas in Cambridge-£2000 (stipend)

2020: Co-supervisor on Research, Innovation and Development Office Undergraduate Summer Research Grant for Khadidja Hamze - In silico prediction of antimicrobial properties of putative bacteriocin produced by Bacillus spp. - £2000 (stipend)

2020: Co-supervisor on Research, Innovation and Development Office Undergraduate Summer Research Grant for Helena Virag - Surveillance of extended Spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli in faecal samples from Racehorses - £2000 (stipend)

Selected recent publications

Hwengwere, K., Nair, H. P., Hughes, K., Peck, L.S., Clark, M.S., & Walker, C. A. (2022) Antimicrobial resistance in Antarctica: Is it still a pristine environment? Microbiome, 10(1):1-3. 1186/s40168-022-01250-x

Puthusseri, R.M., Nair, H.P., Tina, K.J, &Bhat, S.G. (2021). Insights into the response of mangrove sediment microbiomes to heavy metal pollution: Ecological risk assessment and metagenomics perspectives. Journal of Environmental Management 298: 113492 org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113492

C. Rodrigues, J., Nair, H. P., O'Kane, C., & Walker, C. A. (2021). Prevalence of multidrug resistance in Pseudomonas spp. isolated from wild bird feces in an urban aquatic environment. Ecology and Evolution, 11, 14303– 14311. doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8146

Nair, H.P. and Bhat, S,G. (2020) Arabian Sea metagenome derived - α-amylase P109 and its potential applications. Ecological Genetics and Genomics, 1;16:100060. org/10.1016/j.egg.2020.100060

Nair, H.P. and Bhat, S.G. (2020) Metagenomic data on bacterial diversity profiling of Arabian sea sediment by amplicon sequencing. Data in Brief, 28, p.104791. org/10.1016/j.dib.2019.104791

Nair, H., Vincent, H., Puthusseri, R. and Bhat, S.G. (2017) Molecular cloning and characterization of a halotolerant α-amylase from marine metagenomic library derived from Arabian Sea sediments. 3 Biotech, 7(1). 10.1007/s13205-017-0674-0

Nair, H P., Puthusseri, R.M., Vincent, H. and Bhat, S.G. (2017) 16S rDNA-based bacterial diversity analysis of Arabian Sea sediments: A metagenomic approach. Ecological Genetics and Genomics, 3-5, pp.47-51. org/10.1016/j.egg.2017.09.001

Nair, H.P., Vincent, H. and Bhat, S.G. (2014) Evaluation of five in situ lysis protocols for PCR amenable metagenomic DNA from mangrove soils. Biotechnology Reports, 4, pp.134-138. doi.10.1016/j.btre.2014.09.008

Recent presentations and conferences

Whole genome sequencing of multi-drug resistant Pseudomonas isolated from bird faeces collected from recreational areas in Cambridge. Poster session at the Microbiology Society Annual Conference (Online), 2021

Multidrug resistant Pseudomonas spp. isolated from bird faeces collected from recreational areas around the river Cam, in Cambridge - BSAC Antibiotic Resistance and Mechanisms Workshop for Researchers, Birmingham, 2019

Multidrug resistance of uncommon Enterobacterales isolated from bird faeces - BSAC Antibiotic Resistance and Mechanisms Workshop for Researchers, Birmingham, 2019

Analysis of microbial composition and diversity of the sediments of Arabian sea by paired-end illumina reads - International Conference on Biodiversity, Ecology and Conservation of Marine Ecosystems, Hong Kong, 2015

Fingerprinting of metagenomic clones using Amplified Ribosomal DNA Restriction Analysis (ARDRA) for assessment of bacterial diversity of Arabian Sea sediments - 102^nd Indian Science Congress, India, 2015

Media experience

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria found by River Cam, Press Release covered by The Mirror, Sky News, Daily Telegraph and other major outlets, November 2021 (contributor)

Why you may need to encourage social distancing around your bird feeder. The Conversation, May 2020 (contributor)