Profile

Dr. Syed Faisal received his PhD in Biotechnology from Aligarh Muslim University in 2006. He did his postdoctoral training (2005-2013) at College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, USA in the areas of Microbiology and Immunology. He also worked as Research Scientist (2013-2014) at Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, USA before joining National Institute of Animal Biotechnology, Hyderabad in March 2014. His research experience spans Immunology of zoonotic infections and development of vaccine adjuvants. He has more than 40 international research publications and received several awards He has received several extramural grants from various funding agencies DBT, DST, ICMR, CSIR including Indo-US collaborative grant on developing vaccine adjuvants. He is a member of International Society of Vaccines, International Leptospirosis Society, American Society of Microbiology and American Association of Immunologists. He is also serving as Editorial board member in various International Journals like Scientific Reports, Frontiers in Immunology and PLOS ONE.

Current Focus Areas

  • Infectious and zoonotic diseases with focus on pathogenesis of Leptospirosis

Selected Publications

  • Varma VP, Kadivella M, Kavela S, Faisal SM. 2023. Leptospira Lipid A Is a Potent Adjuvant That Induces Sterilizing Immunity against Leptospirosis. Vaccines (Basel).Dec 6;11(12):1824. doi: 10.3390/vaccines11121824. PMID: 38140228; PMCID: PMC10748165.

  • Varma VP, Bankala R, Kumar A, Gawai S, Syed M. Faisal. Differential modulation of innate immune response by lipopolysaccharide of Leptospira. Open Biol. 2023 Nov;13(11):230101. doi: 10.1098/rsob.230101. Epub 2023 Nov 8. PMID: 37935355; PMCID: PMC10645091

  • Sridhar Kavela, Pallavi Vyas, Jusail C.P., Sandeep Kushwaha, Subeer Majumdar, Syed M. Faisal. Use of an Integrated Multi-Omics Approach To Identify Molecular Mechanisms and Critical Factors Involved in the Pathogenesis of Leptospira. Microbiology Spectrum. February, 28, 2023. doi: https://doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.03135-22

  • Varma VP, Kadivella M, Kumar A, Kavela S, Syed M. Faisal*. LigA formulated in AS04 or Montanide ISA720VG induced superior immune response compared to alum, which correlated to protective efficacy in a hamster model of leptospirosis. Front. Immunol. 2022. 13:985802. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.985802

  • Kumar A, Varma VP, Sridhar K, Abdullah M, Vyas P, Ashiq T, Chang Y-F and Syed M. Faisal*. Deciphering the Role of Leptospira Surface Protein LigA in Modulating the Host Innate Immune Response. Front. Immunol. 2021. 12:807775. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.807775.

Skills & Proficiency

Leptospira zoonotic disease virulence factors Immunology Vaccine Adjuvants OMICS Immune modulation Host response Diagnostics