Jayasimha Rao, PhD
ACTIVE MEMBER • Associate Professor
Internal Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine
Research Gate
jrao@carilionclinic.org
Dr. Rao is working as an associate professor at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine (VTCSOM), Internal Medicine/Section of Infectious Diseases, Carilion Clinic. My major research is focused on the bacterial biofilms are involved in increasing bacterial burden and the emergence of antimicrobial resistance are studied by using genomics and transcriptomics methods. We have developed a protocol for repository and tracking for the multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs), including Extended-Spectrum β-Lactamase and Carbapenem Resistant Enterobacteriaceae, which include Providencia stuartii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii. Past 23 years of research experience and technical and teaching expertise have been utilized for working with Infectious Diseases fellow-physicians, hospital resident-physicians, graduate, and undergraduate students from the VTCSOM and RUC. I was trained as a NIH Fogarty fellowship program during (1998-2001) and postdoctoral research associate (2002-2008) at the department of Cell Biology/Microbiology, University of Virginia. Our team major focus is on developing protocols for the clinical patients at the local hospital and community.
Research Interests:
- Bacterial pathogenesis and drug resistance evaluations in clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii.
- Rapid diagnostics of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
- Bacterial biofilm ablation using histotripsy and peptide nucleic acids against gene regulation.
- Multidrug-resistance organisms (MDROs) including carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE's) in clinical settings.
- Molecular tools such as genome and RNA-sequencing, PCR, and cloning expertise.
- Antimicrobial peptide and screening for the MDROs susceptibility assays.
- Epidemiological tracking of Hospital Acquired infections.
- Wastewater epidemiology for microbiome and antimicrobial resistance gene target identification.