Tell us about your early days
I was born in a developing country at a terrible time (1969) when people were fighting for their freedom as well as for their mother country, now known as Bangladesh. When I was only a few years old, the nation was pushed to declare war against their arrogant and army dictator colonial government without weapons and resources. After a year of bloody war and sacrifice of millions of lives, we won and got our freedom and recognition as a nation. But after independence, the nation faced huge economical, shelter, food, and health crises. As a child, I was one of the impoverished and struggled with great difficulties.
Did you have a particular career wish as a child?
Like other kids, I had a dream but my dream was only to be educated and find a job for survival. I never thought I could be an academician in a great university in the best country of the world. Probably my hard work and honesty have brought me here. When I was one of the successful competitors (1 out of 100) who got the opportunity to study in the best public university in Bangladesh, I needed to pick my major depending on the available spot in a certain restricted discipline. I did not have the opportunity to pick my major with my own interests. Following the procedure, I had to study biological sciences as an undergraduate student at the University of Dhaka. After completing a B. Sc. (Hons) in biological sciences with great achievement, I had an opportunity to compete with a group of talented graduates around the country to join the masters of Microbiology program at the University of Dhaka.
When did you first get interested in science?
To fulfil the requirement of M. Sc. in Microbiology, I needed to work as a graduate research intern in a clinical microbiology laboratory at a children's hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh. During my internship, I had an opportunity to work on neonatal pneumonia caused by bacterial pathogens. For that project, my research focus was to develop the methodology to detect, identify and characterize the bacterial pathogens and determine the drug resistant pattern of isolated bacterial pathogens from the clinical specimens including cerebrospinal fluid, sputum and throat swab. That study helped to cure hundreds of sick kids and that was the first encouraging step for me to get involved in research.
How did you get interested in science?
After one and a half years working at the children's hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh, I was awarded a Master's of Science in Microbiology with distinction. My fruitful research outcomes encouraged me to get involved in further research in infectious diseases that are common in Bangladesh and many other developing countries. As Bangladesh is a developing country and does not have much research opportunity, I needed to find an opportunity abroad. I was lucky enough to get admission to two different universities with full scholarship, one at the University of Tokyo (UT), Japan and the other one at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Finally, I decided to go to UT and started working on a research project focused on host-Campylobacter jejuni interaction where I was awarded MS and Ph.D. degrees in Molecular Microbiology in 1996 and 2001, respectively.
When did you decide to become a scientist?
After five and a half years at UT, I decided to continue my research career. Fortunately, I got the opportunity to join Dr. Michael Konkel's laboratory at the School of Molecular Biosciences, at Washington State University, as a postdoctoral fellow. In Dr. Konkel's laboratory my research focused on a project to determine the virulence factors of C. jejuni and its role in human gastrointestinal infections. After two years training in Konkel's laboratory, I got my second postdoctoral training opportunity at the Vaccine and Infectious Diseases Organization (VIDO), University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada. At VIDO, my research focused on the prevention/reduction of colonization of foodborne bacterial pathogens including C. jejuni, Salmonella and Enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) in farm animal reservoirs such as poultry, pig and cattle and control of foodborne infections. After a long journey and achievements during my graduate study and postdoctoral trainings, I felt confident and decided to be a researcher/academician and started to search for an opportunity.
About Debabrata Biswas. Dr. Biswas received his PhD from University of Tokyo (2001) and Postdoctoral experience at Washington State University (2002-3), University of Saskatchewan (2003-9) and University of Arkansas (2009-11). Currently he is Assistant Professor at the Department of Animal and Avian Sciences, University of Maryland (since 2011). Dr. Biswas's work has focused on the virulence of foodborne pathogens in both humans and farm animals, most notably Campylobacter and Salmonella, and the development of vaccine against Salmonella. He has participated on the development of biologic substitute for antibiotics in poultry farming, which might amerliorate the threat of widespread antibiotic resistance and improve product safety. Dr. Biswas has coauthored ∼60 papers and book chapters in the field and received several awards, including 3 Young Investigator Awards from the International Workshop on Campylobacter, Helicobacter and Related Organisms (1999, 2001, 2005) and Best Mentor Award from the University of Maryland.
Were there any people who influenced your decision?
My mentors (both Ph.D. and postdoctoral trainings), my brothers, wife and daughter, and the poor people in my home country and around the world who are fighting with poverty and diseases encouraged me to work harder, face the difficulties, and continue to move toward the target career.
Tell us about your education and experiences at university
I have received my Ph.D. in Molecular Microbiology from the Department of Animal Resources Sciences at the University of Tokyo, Japan where my research examined the host-bacteria interactions. Following the completion of my Ph.D., I worked as a Clinical Microbiologist in the National Laboratory, Dhaka, Bangladesh. As a Clinical Microbiologist, I worked on isolation, identification and characterization of pathogenic microorganisms from the clinical specimens and tested the minimal inhibitory concentration of appropriate antibiotic for treatment. My duties also included various serological and immunological investigations. Then I worked as a postdoctoral fellow for two yaears at Washington State University School of Molecular Biosciences, in Pullman, WA. During this postdoctoral training, I worked on the purification and characterization of bacterial (C. jejuni) secreted proteins and defined the function of the proteins in adherence, invasion and survival in intestinal cells and its role in infections.
In my second postdoctoral training, I worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Vaccine and Infectious Diseases Organization (VIDO), University of Saskatchewan, Canada. My work focused on the factors involved in the colonization of food-borne bacterial pathogens including C. jejuni, toxigenic E. coli in the intestinal epithelial cells and the development of antigenic components to prevent the colonization of these bacterial pathogens in the gut of farm animals. Prior to my current position, I also worked as a Research Associate at the Food Safety Research Institute at the University of Arkansas, in Fayetteville and my research focused on reducing foodborne pathogenic bacterial contamination in animal food products specifically pre-harvest level. Since 2011, I have been working as an assistant professor of Food Safety in the Department of Animal and Avian Sciences, at the University of Maryland (UMD). I am also a faculty member of the Center for Food Safety and Security Systems and Molecular and Cellular Biology department at UMD. My current research projects focus on developing crosscutting research programs in the food safety area. My research targets the control of enteric bacterial pathogens in foods and their colonization in animal reservoirs and also investigates the role of natural products in control of foodborne bacterial colonization in animals and mechanisms of antimicrobial activity of these components.
What was your first position after university?
Postdoctoral researcher at the School of Molecular Biosciences, at Washington State University.
When and where did you start your own laboratory?
August 2011 at the University of Maryland, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
How many people work in your laboratory?
Currently I have three graduate students, two postdoctoral fellows, and six seniors (undergraduates). In addition, three graduate students completed their degrees and three postdoctoral fellows completed their training who now work as faculty members.
What is your position at your institution?
Assistant Professor.
What areas or topics does your laboratory currently focus on?
Currently, I have been working as an assistant professor (tenure-track) in the Department of Animal and Avian Sciences at the University of Maryland. I have a 70% research and 30% teaching appointment. In the last five years at UMD, I have developed alternative approaches including natural plant extracts (BPE) and overexpressed the linoleic acid gene in probiotics using genetically engineered technology to replace synthetic antibiotic use in poultry growth promotion. I am also the first to conjugate bacteriophage genes in non-pathogenic Salmonella vaccine development to protect against the colonization of pathogenic Salmonella serovars. This novel, cost-effective Salmonella vaccine will help eliminate common human pathogenic Salmonella serovars that currently result in devastating foodborne illnesses. Newly developed natural poultry growth promoter, BPE, will make poultry farming sustainable and economical for US poultry farmers going forward as well as combat the emerging antibiotic crisis, and our genetically engineered prebiotic is a potential bio-remedy for food products, specifically fermented dairy products.
What are your main goals for the next 5 years?
Develop an alternative therapeutic and vaccine for farm animals that will mitigate antibiotic resistance issue and make safer and healthier animal food products for the consumers.
Tell us about the most important stages of your professional career
Starting period as tenure track faculty, where you are the PI and need to take care of everything by yourself, is the most important and critical stage. During graduate studentship and postdoctoral training, there is some umbrella over your head that protects and provides all sorts of support including funding, networking, decision making, etc. Whereas at the beginning of a tenure track position, you are obligated to take care of multiple responsibilities, specifically funding, budgeting/accounting, developing of new courses, teaching, and mentoring.
Who were your mentors?
Ph.D. mentor: Dr. Kikuji Itoh, University of Tokyo, Japan;
Postdoc mentors: Dr. Michael Konkel, Washington State University, WA, USA;
Dr. Andy Porter, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization, Canada;
Dr. Steven Ricke, University of Arkansas, AR, USA.
What makes a good mentor?
I believe that the key element in mentoring is active and regular communication. According to my experience, the most important aspects of graduate student and postdoctoral mentoring is recognition that the typical interested researcher is at the start of his/her career and needs help to adjust his or herself to the research projects and other colleagues in the laboratory. The weekly research group meetings and journal club will facilitate him/her to know other related projects and the expertise in the group. Initially the meetings will also help him/her to create a good working relation with a wide variety of students, both graduate and undergraduate and postdoctoral fellows and learn new techniques and experimental methods he/she needs to know to make a successful project.
Mentees are required to encourage participating/attending workshops, deliver lectures and presentations, and to critically evaluate the quality of other presentations. Mentees, specifically Ph.D. candidates and postdoctoral fellows, should also have the opportunity to give several research presentations during their working period. This experience combined with attending scientific meetings will help graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to emerge with an appreciation of the technical requirements for an excellent presenter.
The mentees should have the opportunity to develop working techniques of their own and actively participate in new research proposal preparation as well as in writing and defending papers. He/she will collaborate with other groups on and off campus in the same area including researchers within the industry and academia. These experiences will help the postdoctoral researcher to mature as an excellent leader and independent investigator.
Through such discussions the mentor will help the mentees, specifically graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, in choosing the best possible option tailored to their own individual interests and strengths. The outcome of the training described above will help them to emerge as an independent researcher/faculty member.
What are your research interests and your philosophy in scientific pursues?
My research interests include control/reduction of foodborne pathogen colonization in farm animals and improve farm animal products by developing alternative therapeutics and sub-therapeutic that ultimately improves human health and the environment.
What was your most significant scientific accomplishment?
Developing a poultry natural growth promoter that can replace synthetic antibiotic growth promoter, mitigate the emerging antibiotic resistance issue, and improve product safety by reducing contamination with zoonotic bacterial pathogens such as C. jejuni and Salmonella.
What were your “highlights” in recent research performed in your field?
My recent work on phenolic extracts from berry pomace/by-products and its role in reduction of colonization of foodborne bacterial pathogens in farm animals and improvement of product quality and growth performance were highlighted by Food Safety magazines in the US and UK and the Institute of Food Technology in their website.
What advice would you have to junior people entering the field?
Do not spend too much time on cell phones texting/chatting, go to Google/CDC/NIH/other websites and find out what happens around you and make yourself ready to help people fight back against infectious diseases.
What do you think you would do if you were not an MD or a scientist?
During my undergraduate study, I had a dream of being an administrator or civil service officer.
What do you do for fun?
Listening to music, watching dramas, and shopping with my wife and daughter.