Santosh Tiwari

Background

About Santosh Tiwari

We have demonstrated bacteriocin production in food and soil isolates of lactic acid bacteria. These bacteria have been characterized for probiotic properties and their bacteriocins inhibited broad host-range of pathogens. In addition, bacteriocins of food isolates have shown higher efficacy for application in food safety and therapeutics. Our findings have, first time, demonstrated the activity of probiotic bacteriocins against Gram-negative members. The mode of action of these bacteriocins was found to be bactericidal, caused ATP efflux, dissipated membrane potential and pH gradient of the target cells. These bacteriocins were found to be novel peptides with unique sequences and heat/pH stable. Their activity against MDR strains has shown new way to be used as an alternative to clinical antibiotics to solve multidrug resistance problem. The inhibitory property of bacteriocins is also being characterized for the modulation of microbiota and improvement of human health. In addition, our group is also working on haloarchaea metabolites such as halocins and carotenoids for their potential industrial applications.