Vaibhav Srivastava

Master's projects, internships, and diploma projects are always available - contact me directly for more information!

Area of research
Sustainable aquaculture and agriculture associated with food security and disease control. Our research draws from various cutting-edge fields, including microbial and plant biotechnology, mass spectrometry-based proteomics, drug discovery, protein engineering, microbiology, biochemistry, enzymology, genomics, and metabolomics. By leveraging these powerful tools, we are working towards a more sustainable and secure food system.

Background

I am a multidisciplinary scientist with extensive experience in plant and microbial biotechnology and analytical chemistry. My research focuses on sustainable aquaculture and agriculture and its impact on food security and disease control. Specifically, we are investigating fungal-like eukaryotic microorganisms, including Saprolegnia parasitica and Phytophthora spp., which belong to the family of oomycetes, or water moulds. These microorganisms are pathogenic to many plant and animal species, causing significant environmental damage and financial loss in agriculture and aquaculture. Given the lack of adequate and environmentally safe treatments, we are using bioinformatics, molecular biology, and biochemical approaches to understand the molecular and physiological pathways associated with the development, pathogenicity, and host specificity of these pathogens. In addition, we specifically focus on the synthesis and structure of complex carbohydrate-related enzymes associated with microbial cell walls. We conduct large-scale multi-omics studies, such as transcriptomics and proteomics, to identify candidate cell wall proteins as potential targets for disease control.

My research also explores the modification of plant cell walls by engineering carbohydrate biosynthetic pathways for a wide range of applications, using poplar (Populus) and Arabidopsis as experimental model systems. Through our work, we aim to not only understand the molecular function of target genes with currently unknown catalytic activity but also utilise modified plant biomass for practical industrial applications.

Teaching

I specialise in teaching bachelor's, master's and  Ph.D.-level courses that focus on plant and microbial biotechnology. In particular, I cover a wide range of topics related to metabolic engineering applications in plants and other microbial organisms. Through these courses, I aim to provide students with a deep understanding of the fundamental principles behind metabolic engineering and its potential applications in various industries.

I am also involved in other courses focusing on the technical aspects of mass spectrometry-based qualitative and quantitative proteomics. In these courses, I teach students to utilise state-of-the-art techniques and methodologies to analyse and interpret proteomics data.

Financial support

My research is currently supported by the H2020 FetOpen project NOPEST (http://www.h2020nopest.org/), the Swedish Research Council Formas (https://formas.se/), and VINNOVA (https://www.vinnova.se/en).