Seminar: "Microbial Health in One Health: Resistance and Interactions" - Aishwarya Santosh Deshpande

Aishwarya Santosh Deshpande, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Biology
Montclair State University

Microbial health is a central pillar of the One Health framework, yet methodological limitations constrain our ability to mechanistically link environmental microbiomes to antibiotic resistance and ecosystem resilience. My research addresses these gaps through two complementary directions. First, although antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are widely quantified across environmental matrices, major challenges remain in identifying their microbial hosts, genetic context, and ecological drivers. I characterized the abundance, diversity, host association, and genomic context of ARGs from different environmental matrices by examining the role of extracellular DNA in ARG persistence, evaluating biases introduced by bioinformatics pipelines, assessing shifts associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, and investigating air as an underexplored matrix for ARG surveillance. Second, to better understand soil microbial interactions and community dynamics, I studied two synthetic ecological platforms. Using bioprinted synthetic soil aggregates, I recreated spatial microhabitats to study microscale microbial interactions. In parallel, I applied microfluidics-based approaches to quantify functional traits under controlled conditions. Major findings from both directions will be discussed, highlighting conceptual advances, technical developments, and broader ecological relevance.