Faustina Asare has completed her Master's degree in Microbiology

Faustina Asare has characterized and compared the entire O-antigen biosynthesis gene clusters from two non-pathogenic bacterial isolates previously recovered from freshwater sources in Bangladesh (strains Iso10 and DM104), and which cross-react serologically with pathogenic Shigella species. Her work included whole-genome sequence analysis, and a range of molecular and bioinformatics methods. The results have confirmed that the genes specifying the O-antigen epitopes are prone to inter-species gene transfer and have provided support for the ongoing efforts to test these strains as live shigellosis vaccine candidates in Bangladesh.