Affiliation: University of Texas, Medical Branch

Dr. Desai is fascinated by how pathogens exist in different forms to survive and replicate in often fluctuating host and non-host environments. Her research focuses on understanding the genetic and signaling events that enable the enteric pathogen, Salmonella enterica to shift between virulent and dormant lifestyles. In her postdoctoral work, she unraveled that atypical signaling by a virulence master regulator drives the expression of a central pathway involved in forming sessile Salmonella communities, or biofilms. Salmonella biofilms are necessary for persistence and carriage in asymptomatic patients. In fact, in chronic Salmonella infections, biofilms are formed on gallstones in the gallbladder, increasing the frequency of developing hepatobiliary carcinomas. She is now excited to harness this expertise at UTMB in biomedical sciences to unravel the mechanisms of lifestyle changes in more aggressive strains of Salmonella and understand how it drives asymptomatic chronic infections. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly put a ‘spotlight’ on the dangerous role of asymptomatic infections in spreading human pathogens.