Shashi Sharma
US Food and Drug Administration, USA
Biography
Shashi K Sharma currently serves as Team Leader of Special Pathogens and Select Agents (SPSA) at the Division of Microbiology in the Office of Regulatory Science. He oversees a group of researchers and support scientists engaged in a multi-parameter research program to develop and apply microbiological and molecular genetic strategies for detecting and identifying select agent and bacterial foodborne pathogens. His early work on the development of monoclonal antibodies and immunodiagnostics of HIV and Typhoid including a unique detection system based on liposomal technology for Syphilis antigen. Dr. Sharma received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from University of Bhopal, India in 1992. In 1994, he joined the Department of Biochemistry, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where he worked on the structure and function of Clostridium botulinum neurotoxins. Dr. Sharma came to the Food and Drug Administration in 2002 and has since carried out numerous experiments relating to the detection and identification of select agents and foodborne pathogens. He is a member of the American Society for Microbiology and has co-authored more than 50 publications and book chapters on detection and identification of select agents such as Botulinum, Ricin, Bacillius anthracis and Francisella tularensis. His current research focuses on the development and validation of an effective and sensitive detection system for Clostridium botulinum toxins in foods. He has served in advisory role to the US government agencies on select agents assay development and a founding executive board member of Institute of Advance Science, Dartmouth, MA.