Academic Awards/Distinctions: The Pondicherry University Gold Medal for M.D., in Microbiology.

 

 

 

1. CME (14 Oct 1992) on DNA Hybridization - as a part of the 16th congress of      Indian association of medical microbiology (IAMM) held in A.I.I.M.S. 

 

2. Organizing secretary of workshop on "Biotechnological methods for detection and classification of enteric pathogens. (21st Nov- 7th Dec 1994) held at A.I.I.M.S.Sponsored by DBT, Govt. of India ).
 

 

 3. Organizing secretary of CME on “Detection and Characterization of ESBLs, Metallo beta lactamases and AmpC enzymes”. April 21^st 2007, V.P. Chest Institute for Indian Association of Medical Microbiologists, Delhi Chapter.

 

4. Organized work shop entitled” Molecular diagnosis and typing of bacterial     respiratory pathogens” for the annual conference of IAMM, Delhi chapter, 25th          March 2011 at Dept. of Microbiology, VPCI.

 

 

Special Trainings Received:

 

 

1. Training in Molecular biology from Dr. Halvor Sommerfelt, in the University of Bergen, Norway.

 

2. Electron microscopic & Immuno-Electron microscopic techniques from Dr. Stuart Knutton, visiting scientist from University of Birmingham, U.K. under the Indo-British "link” project.

 

3. Training in Ussing's chamber technique as applied to in vitro studies of infectious diarrhoeal diseases from Dr.Stuart Knutton at Birmingham, U.K.

 

4. DBT sponsored fellowship for Training in Molecular techniques like PFGE and MLST at Center for Disease Control, Atlanta, USA. Nov 2004-May 2005.

 

 

Invited lectures delivered:

 

 

1.Diarhheal disorders in children- laboratory approach. In International C.M.E. on laboratory approaches to pediatric problems. 11-13 Oct 1995, A.I.I.M.S.

 

2. Molecular epidemiology. In "Techniques in microbiology, Molecular biology and rDNA technology." At A.I.I.M.S.

 

Membership/Fellowship of Professional/Academic Bodies and Societies

 

Life member, Indian Association of Medical Microbiologists

 

Life member of IAMM Delhi Chapter.

 

Life member of Biotechnology Society of India

 

 

B. Research Areas

 

1. Molecular characterization of various gram-negative bacterial isolates by PFGE, ribotyping and protein profiling and MLST.


2.Characterization of Extended spectrum beta-lactamases, Metallo-beta lactamases and AmpC beta lactamases produced by gram-negative bacteria isolated from clinical specimens.


3. Molecular characterization of Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Moraxella isolates from respiratory infections.


4. Molecular characterization and Antibiotic susceptibility pattern of Acinetobacter sps

 

 

C. Ongoing and Completed Research Projects

 

1. Molecular characterization of ESBL Plasmids responsible for resistance to III / IV generation cephalosporins in clinical isolates of E. coli, Klebsiella spp., Proteus spp. & Ps. Aeruginosa. At Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute, Delhi University, funded by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India.
Status: Completed.

 

2. Molecular Characterization of Respiratory Isolates of Moraxella catarrhalis. – Funded by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Govt of India, Jan14, 2005 (3 years). Status: Completed.

 

3. Detection and Characterization of AmpC β-lactamases in clinical isolates of   Klebsiella spp. and Escherichia coli-– Funded by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Govt of India, March 29,2007 (3 Years). Status: Completed.

 

4. Evaluation of phenotypic and genotypic methods for the detection and characterization of Metallo β-lactamases in clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. – Funded by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), October, 2007 (Three years). Status: Completed.

 

5. Phenotypic and Genetic characterization of Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates from clinical samples- Funded by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India,July 2008 (Three years). Status: Completed.

 

D. List of publications :

1.G M Shariff and S C Parija. (1991) Countercurrent immuno- electrophoresis test for serodiagnosis of Hydatid disease by detection of circulating Hydatid antigen. J Microbiol Methods; 14: 71-76.

 

2. G M Shariff and S C Parija. (1993) Co-agglutination test: A novel immunoassay for the detection of circulating antigens in the diagnosis of Hydatid disease. J Med Microbiol., 38(6): 391-394.

 

3. M Shariff, M K Bhan, S Knutton, B K Das, S Saini, and R Kumar. 1993. Evaluation of Fluorescent Actin staining test for detection of Enteropathogenic E.coli. J Clin Microbiol., 31(2):386-389.

4. M Shariff, N Bhandari and S Saini. (1994). Fluorescent actin staining (FAS) test: A novel assay to detect enteropathogenic E.coli. Ind J Pediatr. 61(6): 737-738.

 

5. M. Shariff, M.Deb, Singh.R, Singh.K. 2002.Cryptosporidium infection in children with acute diarrhoea. J Tropical Pediatrics 48:187-188.

 

6. M. Shariff, M.Deb ,R.Singh.2003 The study of Rotavirus diarrhea in Eastern Nepal. Ind J Med Microbiol, 21(2):87-90.

 

7. S K Tickoo, M K Bhan, R Srivastava, B K Das, M Shariff, S Saini and R.Kumar. 1992. Intestinal colonization and production of diarrhea by Enteroadherent Aggregative E.coli. Indian. J. Med. Res.,[A]95:278-283.

 

8. Bharathmoorthy; Chakravarthy, I.; Swaminathan, R. P.; Das, A. K.; Malini, G.; Reba Kunugo; Rao, S.1992. Haemorrhagic meningitis due to bacillus anthrax. Journal of Association of Physicians of India; 40(2): 134-5

 

9. S C Parija, G.Malini and R.S.Rao. 1993. Prevalence of Hookworm species in Pondicherry, India. Trop Geographical Med., 378-380.

 

10. S Bhatnagar, M K Bhan, K D Singh, S K saxena, M Shariff. Efficacy of milk based diet in persistent diarrhea: a randomized controlled trial.1996. Pediatrics., 98(6):1122-1126.

 

11. S C Parija, P T Ravinder, M Shariff. Detection of hydatid antigen in the fluid samples from hydatid cysts by co-agglutination (Co-A). 1996. Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg., 90:255-256.

 

12. AK Sharma, N Jha, VG Ramachandran, M Shariff, M Deb, AT Kannan, IS Paudel, BK Yadav.2002. Descriptive epidemiology of a gastroenteritis outbreak in Sinsari district, Nepal. JNMA.,41:383-387.

 

13. B Khanal, Bhattacharya SK, BMS Karki, M Shariff, M Deb. 2003. Educating nurses to build a care-with-confidence team. Education for Health., 16(2):228-229.

 

14. B.Khanal, M. Shariff, M.Deb. 2002. Neonatal Septicaemia: 3-year hospital Based Study in Eastern Nepal. JNMA; 43:231-234.

 

15. Amit Sharma, Malini Shariff, S.S. Thukral, Ashok Shah.2005. Chronic community-acquired Acinetobacter pneumonia that responded slowly to rifampicin in the anti-tuberculous regime.J Infection;51(3): e149-e152.

 

16. M Shariff, S.S.Thukral, Beall B. New multilocus sequence types of Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates from patients with respiratory infections in India. Ind J Med Res 126, August 2007, pp 161-164

 

17. ML Das, M Deb, BMS Karki., M Shariff, B Khanal, SK Bhattacharya, S Agarwal& S koirala . Use of rK39 for diagnosis of post-Kala-azar dermal Leishmaniasis in Nepal.South East Asian J trop med Pub 2007. 38( 4):619-625.

 

18. T Barua, M Shariff & SS Thukral. Identification of AmpC beta-lactamases using phenotypic tests and PCR in clinical isolates of Klebsiella spp. and Escherichia coli Int J Infect Dis., 2008;12:e112.

 

19. SP Singh, M Shariff & SS Thukral. Detection and characterization of Metallo Beta- lactamases in clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from different hospitals in Delhi, India. Int J Infect Dis., 2008; 12: e354

 

20. Mandira Varma-Basil, Shailendra K. D. Dwivedi, Krishna Kumar, Rakesh Pathak, Ritika Rastogi, S. S. Thukral, Malini Shariff, V. K. Vijayan, Sunil K. Chhabra, and Rama Chaudhary Role of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection in acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. J Med Microbiol 2009. 58: 322-326.

 

21. Sakshi Pal Singh, Malini Shariff & S.S. Thukral. Comparative evaluation of phenotypic tests for identification of Metallo β-lactamases producing clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Indian J Med Res 129, June 2009, pp 713-715.

 

22. Malini Shariff, Shazia Zahoor, Monorams Deb.Concern of 19A serotype in Indian isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae. IJMM ( Accepted)

 

2. Dr. Mandira Varma Basil, Director Professor

 

Institution and Location	Degree	Year(s)	Field of Study
Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi,  INDIA     Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi, INDIA	M.B.B.S.         M.D.	1991         1994	Preclinical, Paraclinical, Clinical       Medical Microbiology

 

 

Year	Designation	Institute
1991-1994	Junior Resident, Dept. of Microbiology	Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi
1995-1997	Senior Resident, Dept. of Microbiology	Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi
1997-1999	Lecturer, Dept. of Microbiology	V. P. Chest Institute, University of Delhi, Delhi
1999-2004	Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Microbiology	V. P. Chest Institute, University of Delhi, Delhi
2004- 2007	Reader, Dept. of Microbiology	V. P. Chest Institute, University of Delhi, Delhi
2007- Present	Associate Professor, Dept. of Microbiology	V. P. Chest Institute, University of Delhi, Delhi

 

 

Other Experience

 

YEAR	DEGREE	SUBJECT
1994	Diplomat of National Board	Medical Microbiology

 

 

 

B.Honours and Awards:

 

 

1. 2011-2012 ICMR International Fellowship (Govt. of India) to work in Dept. of Infectious Diseases, University of Medicine and Dentistry, Newark, New Jersey, USA. Worked on sloppy molecular beacons to detect mutations in genes responsible for drug resistance in M. tuberculosis.

 

2. 2011: Best Paper. MICRO-D-CON 2011, held at AIIMS (25-26^th March, 2011). Title: Diagnostic role of Real Time PCR and IL-10 marker in Lymphadenopathy patients. Ashima Jain, Abhimanyu, Kushal Garima, Mandira Varma Basil, Mridula Bose.

 

 

 

 

“Identification of M. tuberculosis by PCR restriction analysis directly in clinical samples”. Mandira Varma-Basil, Kushal Garima, Rakesh Pathak, Kameshwar Singh, Shailendra Dwivedi, Sujeet Kumar, Bhawna Dhiman, Mridula Bose.

 

 

 

 

 

“Detectionof MDR-TB through analysis of rifampin resistance mutations in clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis by a rapid molecular technique”. Vinay Kumar, Mridula Bose, Anuj Bhatnagar, Sugata Roy, John Thomas, Geeta, Mandira Varma-Basil.

 

 

2002-2003 Overseas Associateship, DBT (Govt. of India) to work in Dept. of Infectious Diseases, University of Medicine and Dentistry, Newark, New Jersey, USA.

 

 

6. 2001 II prize, Poster presentation, VI Hospital Infection Society Conference, SMS Medical   College Jaipur. Title: “Comparison of Etest and Proportion method for drug susceptibility testing of M. tuberculosis” . Mandira Varma, Sujeet Kumar, Mridula Bose.


7. 2000 Best paper, II National Conference of Chest Physicians and Indian Chest Society, Kanpur    Nov 2000. Title: “Profile of drug resistant tuberculosis in Delhi (Preliminary Report)” by Neeraj Sharma, Saibal Moitra, Mandira Varma and Mridula Bose

 

 

Publications

 

 

1. Menon MPS, Bose M, Menon BK, Varma M, Sharma N, Vashisht B. 1998. Clinical and bacteriological evaluation of two directly observed (supervised) six month regimens for sputum positive category I tuberculosis patients. An interim report. JAMA India. The Physicians update. 1: 29-33.

 

2. Menon MPS, Jain S, Menon BK, Ray K, Bose M, Varma M. 1999. Hepatic cryptococcosis in association with pulmonary tuberculosis and amoebic liver abscess. Ind J. Tub. 46:137-140.

 

 

3. Varma M and Mehta G. 1999. Incidence of HTLV-1 in High Risk Population. Journal of Communicable diseases. 31: 237-240.

 

 

4. Varma M and Mehta G. 2000. Needlestick Injuries among Medical Students. Journal of Indian Medical Association. 98: 436-438

 

 

5. Menon MPS, Bose M, Menon BK, Varma M, Vashisht B, Sharma N. 2000. Evaluation of two self administered six month regimen for smear positive category I tuberculosis patients. Pulmon. 2: 82-93.

 

 

6. Varma M, Sachdeva V, Diwan N. 2000. Incidence of enteroadherence in diarrhoegenic Escherichia coli in infants in Delhi. Journal of Communicable Diseases. 32: 161-168.

 

 

7. Varma M, Kumar S, Kumar A, Bose M. 2002. Comparison of E test and agar proportion method of testing drug susceptibility of M. tuberculosis. Ind. J. Tub. 490: 217-220.

 

 

8.Sinha R, Panjabi C, Varma M, Vijayan VK, Shah A. 2003.  Chronic Klebsiella pneumonia in an immunocompetent host. JAPI. 51: 306-308.

 

 

9. Varma-Basil M, El-Hajj H, Marras S, Hazbon M, Mann J, Connell N, Kramer F, Alland D. 2004. Molecular Beacons for multiplex detection of four bacterial bioterrorism agents.Clinical Chemistry. 50: 1060-1063.

 

 

10. Varma-Basil M, El-Hajj H, Colangeli R, Hazbon MH, Kumar S, Bose M, Bobadilla-del-Valle M, Garcia LG, Hernandez A, Kramer FR, Osornio JS, Ponce-de-Leon A, Alland D. 2004. Rapid detection of rifampicin resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from India and Mexico by a molecular beacon assay. J Clin Microbiol.42:5512-5516.

 

 

11. Colangeli R, Helb D, Sridharan S, Sun J, Varma-Basil M, Hazbon MH, Harbacheuski R, Megjugorac NJ, Jacobs WR Jr, Holzenburg A, Sacchettini JC, Alland D. 2005. The Mycobacterium tuberculosis iniA gene is essential for activity of an efflux pump that confers drug tolerance to both isoniazid and ethambutol. Mol Microbiol. 55:1829-40.

 

 

12. Hazbon MH, Bobadilla del Valle M, Guerrero MI, Varma-Basil M, Filliol I, Cavatore M, Colangeli R, Safi H, Billman-Jacobe H, Lavender C, Fyfe J, Garcia-Garcia L, Davidow A, Brimacombe M, Leon CI, Porras T, Bose M, Chaves F, Eisenach KD, Sifuentes-Osornio J, Ponce de Leon A, Cave MD, Alland D. 2005. Role of embB codon 306 mutations in Mycobacterium tuberculosis revisited: a novel association with broad drug resistance and IS6110 clustering rather than ethambutol resistance. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 49:3794-3802.

 

 

13. Hazbon MH, Brimacombe M, Bobadilla del Valle M, Cavatore M, Guerrero MI, Varma-Basil M, Billman-Jacobe H, Lavender C, Fyfe J, Garcia-Garcia L, Leon CI, Bose M, Chaves F, Murray M, Eisenach KD, Sifuentes-Osornio J, Cave MD, Ponce de Leon A, Alland D. 2006. Population genetics study of isoniazid resistance mutations and evolution of multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 50:2640-2649.

 

 

14. Varma-Basil M, Kumar S, Yadav J, Kumar N, Bose M. 2007. A simple method to differentiate between Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Non-tuberculous Mycobacteria directly on clinical specimens. Southeast Asian J Trop Med Public Health. 38: 111-114.

 

 

15. Varma-Basil M,  Dwivedi S, Kumar K, Rastogi R, Thukral SS, Vijayan VK, Chhabra SK, Chaudhary R. 2009. Role of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection in acute exacerbations of COPD. J Med Microbiol. 58(Pt 3):322-326.

 

 

16. Varma-Basil M, Pathak R, Singh K, Dwivedi SKD, Garima K, Kumar S, Sharma D, Dhiman B, Bose M.  2010. Direct Early Identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis    by PCR Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism Analysis from Clinical Samples. Jpn J Infect Dis, 63 (1), 55-57.

 

 

17. Pasricha R, Chandolia A, Ponnan P, Saini NK, Sharma S, Chopra M, Varma-Basil M, Brahmachari V, Bose M. 2011. Single Nucleotide Polymorphism in the Genes of mce1 and mce4 Operons of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Analysis of Clinical Isolates and Standard Reference Strains. BMC Microbiol. 11:41.

 

 

18. Angrup A, Varma-Basil M, Kumar S, Pathak RK, Sharma H, Banavaliker JN, Bose M.2011. Drug resistance among Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from private clinics and a DOTS center in Delhi, India. Southeast Asian J Trop Med Public Health. 42:122-127.

 

 

19. Mandira Varma-Basil, Sujeet Kumar, Archana Angrup, Jyoti Arora, Thierry Zozio, Jayant Nagesh Banavalikar, Urvashi B. Singh, Nalin Rastogi, Mridula Bose. 2011. Comparison of      spoligotyping, mycobacterial interspersed repetitive units (MIRUs) typing, and IS6110-RFLP in a study of genotypic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Delhi, North India. Accepted in Memorias Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz, 106:524-535.

 

 

20. Sagarika Haldar, Mridula Bose, Parul Chakrabarti, Hatim F. Daginawala, Harinath BC, Rajpal S Kashyap, Savita Kulkarni, Anindita Majumdar, H. Krishna Prasad, Camilla Rodrigues, Ranjana Srivastava, Girdhar M. Taori, Mandira Varma-Basil, Jaya S. Tyagi. 2011. Improved Laboratory Diagnosis of tuberculosis-The Indian Experience. Tuberculosis (Edinb), 91:414-426.

 

 

CHAPTERS IN BOOKS/ MANUALS :

 

1. Bose M and Varma M. 2000.Tuberculosis and MOTT in HIV/AIDS. Manual on Laboratory Diagnosis of Common Opportunistic Infections Associated with HIV-AIDS. NICD & NACO. 88-99.

 

2. Varma-Basil M and Bose M. 2006. Multidrug resistant tuberculosis- an emerging problem. In Microbes for Human Life IV. Ed. Varma A. IK International Publishing House. New Delhi.

 

Research Support

 

 

Ongoing Research Support

 

 

1. PI: Dr. Mandira Varma-Basil 2010-2013 ICMR. Drug resistance profiling and molecular typing of M. tuberculosis isolates   from different community settings in North Delhi.

 

2. PI: Dr. Mandira Varma-Basil 2011-2014 DBT. Expression profile of efflux related pumps in drug resistant M. tuberculosis.

 

 

Completed Research Projects

 

1. PI: Dr. Mandira Varma-Basil 2007-2010 ICMR. Early detection and identification of M. tuberculosis using PCR restriction analysis.

 

2. PI: Dr. Mandira Varma-Basil 2003-2006 ICMR. Prevalence of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection in patients of   acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

 

3. Overseas Fellow: Dr. Mandira Varma-Basil 2002-2003 Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India. Rapid detection of rifampicin resistance in M. tuberculosis isolates from Mexico and India with molecular beacons.

 

 

M. Tuberculosis:

 · Early identification of M. tuberculosis.

 

· Drug resistance, particularly multidrug resistance (MDR-TB), in patients of tuberculosis.

 

· Rapid Molecular Methods to detect Mycobacterum sp.

 

·  Molecular epidemiology of M. tuberculosis

 

Mycoplasma pneumoniae