<\/p>\n
Ph.D., Microbiology, New York University<\/b>
\n<\/b>B.A., Biological Sciences, Mount Holyoke College<\/b><\/p>\n
Research Interests<\/b><\/p>\n
The Shahi lab is interested in how pathogenic (i.e. disease-causing) bacteria function during the course of an infection. We focus particularly on <\/span>Kingella kingae<\/span><\/i>, a gram-negative bacterium which is the leading cause of bone infections in children under 4 years of age. <\/span>K. kingae<\/span><\/i> starts by colonizing the oropharynx (part of the throat), before infiltrating into the bloodstream and spreading to other parts of the body. Understanding how <\/span>K. kingae<\/span><\/i> “behaves” at each stage of this process is a necessary first step in learning how to prevent or treat this bacterial infection. To that end, we use an array of molecular biology and microbiology techniques to decipher the role of bacterial and host factors that are involved in <\/span>K. kingae<\/span><\/i> pathogenesis.<\/span><\/p>\n Student Research Opportunities<\/b><\/p>\n Research projects in my lab test for how <\/span>K. kingae <\/span><\/i>responds to various external stimuli and conditions that it might encounter in the human body during an infection. Working directly with the bacteria, students will learn experimental methods that form the basis of most basic microbiology and biomedical research. Please contact me if you are curious about working in my lab.<\/span><\/p>\n Selected Publications<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Shahi I<\/b>, Dongas SA, Ilmain JK, Torres VJ, Ratner AJ. <\/span>Characterization of tigurilysin, a novel human CD59-specific cholesterol-dependent cytolysin, reveals a role for host specificity in augmenting toxin activity<\/span><\/i>. Microbiology (Reading). 2023 Sep;169(9). doi: 10.1099\/mic.0.001393. PMID: 37702594.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Shahi I<\/b>, Llaneras CN, Perelman SS, Torres VJ, Ratner AJ. <\/span>Genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 Screen Does Not Identify Host Factors Modulating Streptococcus agalactiae \u03b2-Hemolysin\/Cytolysin-induced Cell Death<\/span><\/i>. Microbiol Spectr. 2022 Feb 23;10(1):e0218621. doi: 10.1128\/spectrum.02186-21. Epub 2022 Feb 2. PMID: 35196804; PMCID: PMC8865549.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dammann AN, Chamby AB, Gonzalez FJ, Sharp ME, Flores K, <\/span>Shahi I<\/b>, Dongas S, Hooven TA, Ratner AJ. <\/span>Group B Streptococcus capsular serotype alters vaginal colonization fitness<\/span><\/i>. J Infect Dis. 2022 Jun 1;225(11):1896-1904. doi: 10.1093\/infdis\/jiab559. PMID: 34788438; PMCID: PMC9159310.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1893,"featured_media":7809,"template":"","class_list":["post-7318","faculty-profile","type-faculty-profile","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faculty-profile\/7318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faculty-profile"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/faculty-profile"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1893"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faculty-profile\/7318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7806,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faculty-profile\/7318\/revisions\/7806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}