Harisree is a Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Science and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She is a molecular microbiologist with diverse research interest in microbiology. Her research interest includes understanding environmental microbes using metagenomic methods, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and zoonotic pathogens, bacteriophage biology and phage therapy.
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Harisree completed her PhD from Cochin University of Science and Technology (India) in 2016 for her research investigating the metagenome of marine and mangrove sediments, particularly focusing on phylogenetic diversity and characterisation of amylase obtained by functional screening.
During her doctoral research, she also worked as a junior and senior research fellow in a Govt. of India funded research project to study the metagenome of marine sediments. Later, she joined the Indian Institute of Science as a Postdoctoral Fellow until 2018.
Harisree joined Anglia Ruskin University in 2019 as a Postdoctoral Research Associate with Dr Caray A Walker. Their research was focused on understanding the prevalence of enteric pathogens in wild birds and investigating potential antimicrobial resistance mechanisms. They have an ongoing project focusing on the surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in the Antarctic ecosystem in collaboration with the British Antarctic Survey.
Harisree joined ARU as a Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences in 2021. She is a member of the Biomedical Research Group.
English
Malayalam
Harisree welcomes enquiries from prospective students in the areas of her research interests.
Research grants:
2022: Principal Investigator on Research development support grant for the project entitled “Metagenomics to unravel soil microbiome in oilseed rape crops for sustainable agriculture” (£10,000)
2020-2021: Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded to undertake a research project under the supervision of Dr Caray Walker investigating multidrug resistant bacteria in the South East, London and East of England regions (GBP £53,000)
Jan 2020-May 2020: School of Life Sciences QR-funded short project entitled “Prevalence of multidrug resistance Enterobacteriaceae in wild birds in the South East, London and East of England Regions” (GBP £17,977)
2017-2019: Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded to undergo research in Indian Institute of Science for her project on mud volcano sediments by Kerala Biotechnology Commission, Kerala State Council for Science Technology and Environment, Govt. of Kerala, India (INR 9,44,800/-)
Summer studentships:
2024: Supervisor on School of Life Science research internship for Jael Vakil Kumar on Strategies to evaluate the potential of bacteriophages as biocontrol agents to reduce antimicrobial resistance burden - £2500 (stipend)
2023: Supervisor on School of Life Science research internship for Guilherme Fernandes Campos on Insilco analysis of metagenomic data sets utilising MG-RAST and QIIME pipelines - £2500 (stipend)
2022: Co-supervisor on Research, Innovation and Development Office Undergraduate Summer Research Grant for Lauren Chater - Wild birds as propagators of antimicrobial resistance - £2000 (stipend)
2021: Co-supervisor on Research, Innovation and Development Office Undergraduate Summer Research Grant for Kerri Southgate - Investigating the prevalence of zoonotic bacterial pathogens in dog faeces collected from recreational areas in Cambridge-£2000 (stipend)
2020: Co-supervisor on Research, Innovation and Development Office Undergraduate Summer Research Grant for Khadidja Hamze - In silico prediction of antimicrobial properties of putative bacteriocin produced by Bacillus spp. - £2000 (stipend)
2020: Co-supervisor on Research, Innovation and Development Office Undergraduate Summer Research Grant for Helena Virag - Surveillance of extended Spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli in faecal samples from Racehorses - £2000 (stipend)
Hwengwere, K., Nair, H. P., Hughes, K., Peck, L.S., Clark, M.S., & Walker, C. A. (2022) Antimicrobial resistance in Antarctica: Is it still a pristine environment? Microbiome, 10(1):1-3. 1186/s40168-022-01250-x
Puthusseri, R.M., Nair, H.P., Tina, K.J, &Bhat, S.G. (2021). Insights into the response of mangrove sediment microbiomes to heavy metal pollution: Ecological risk assessment and metagenomics perspectives. Journal of Environmental Management 298: 113492 org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113492
C. Rodrigues, J., Nair, H. P., O'Kane, C., & Walker, C. A. (2021). Prevalence of multidrug resistance in Pseudomonas spp. isolated from wild bird feces in an urban aquatic environment. Ecology and Evolution, 11, 14303– 14311. doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8146
Nair, H.P. and Bhat, S,G. (2020) Arabian Sea metagenome derived - α-amylase P109 and its potential applications. Ecological Genetics and Genomics, 1;16:100060. org/10.1016/j.egg.2020.100060
Nair, H.P. and Bhat, S.G. (2020) Metagenomic data on bacterial diversity profiling of Arabian sea sediment by amplicon sequencing. Data in Brief, 28, p.104791. org/10.1016/j.dib.2019.104791
Nair, H., Vincent, H., Puthusseri, R. and Bhat, S.G. (2017) Molecular cloning and characterization of a halotolerant α-amylase from marine metagenomic library derived from Arabian Sea sediments. 3 Biotech, 7(1). 10.1007/s13205-017-0674-0
Nair, H P., Puthusseri, R.M., Vincent, H. and Bhat, S.G. (2017) 16S rDNA-based bacterial diversity analysis of Arabian Sea sediments: A metagenomic approach. Ecological Genetics and Genomics, 3-5, pp.47-51. org/10.1016/j.egg.2017.09.001
Nair, H.P., Vincent, H. and Bhat, S.G. (2014) Evaluation of five in situ lysis protocols for PCR amenable metagenomic DNA from mangrove soils. Biotechnology Reports, 4, pp.134-138. doi.10.1016/j.btre.2014.09.008
Whole genome sequencing of multi-drug resistant Pseudomonas isolated from bird faeces collected from recreational areas in Cambridge. Poster session at the Microbiology Society Annual Conference (Online), 2021
Multidrug resistant Pseudomonas spp. isolated from bird faeces collected from recreational areas around the river Cam, in Cambridge - BSAC Antibiotic Resistance and Mechanisms Workshop for Researchers, Birmingham, 2019
Multidrug resistance of uncommon Enterobacterales isolated from bird faeces - BSAC Antibiotic Resistance and Mechanisms Workshop for Researchers, Birmingham, 2019
Analysis of microbial composition and diversity of the sediments of Arabian sea by paired-end illumina reads - International Conference on Biodiversity, Ecology and Conservation of Marine Ecosystems, Hong Kong, 2015
Fingerprinting of metagenomic clones using Amplified Ribosomal DNA Restriction Analysis (ARDRA) for assessment of bacterial diversity of Arabian Sea sediments - 102nd Indian Science Congress, India, 2015
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria found by River Cam, Press Release covered by The Mirror, Sky News, Daily Telegraph and other major outlets, November 2021 (contributor)
Why you may need to encourage social distancing around your bird feeder. The Conversation, May 2020 (contributor)