Genome sequencing of Coronavirus: Dr Sabia Qureshi’s path-breaking research

With the motto – you have to show that it’s your turn now, Dr. Sabia Qureshi did some path breaking research in the field of Veterinary Science from detecting Campylobacter in animals and animal products as a potential source of infection for human beings to detection and genome sequencing of SARS Cov-2 virus in humans and wastewater surveillance for SARS-Cov2 at UNMC Nebraska, USA during pandemic times.
When most of the people were shunning away from research on SARS-Cov2, she took up the challenge of working on human coronaviruses at the Centre for Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Sciences, Nebraska, USA in March 2021.
Dr. Qureshi is currently a Professor and Head, Division of Veterinary Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry. SKUAST-K.
Currently she has two externally funded projects – funded by DBT, Government of India and another funded by Centre of Public Health, UNMC, USA. The DBT funded project aims at development of an aptamer-based kit for diagnosing Campylobacter infection which is the leading cause of abortion in animals, besides C. Jejuni. Being an important food borne zoonotic pathogen, it enters humans through the food chain. Campylobacter infections in humans have also been associated with the development of Guillain-Barre and Miller Fischer’s syndrome.
She says, “I worked in the Nebraska center for public health where I used Minion and Illumina platforms for whole genome sequencing of SARS Cov- 2 virus. We were busy detecting corona in humans when most people loved to stay away from this kind of work. I was a part of a team that was continuously doing wastewater surveillance for coronaviruses to find variants of concern or interest in Nebraska County.”
In 1992, she joined veterinary studies when the profession was considered male-dominated.
“In case of animals, you have to put more effort for applying your clinical know-how to understand what your patient is suffering from. They simply can’t tell like human patients. You need to guess, observe, understand and the guess has to be right,” she said. The first girl student to be the gold medalist at bachelor’s degree in faculty of veterinary sciences knew how to make her name in the profession which involved more strength to deal with the animals.
During 2001-2003 she pursued her master’s degree. During the time, she worked on detection and characterization of Rotavirus, a virus that is leading causes of neonatal diarrhea in humans and animals as well.
“In Kashmir, under supervision of my Guide Professor S.A Wani, we discovered rotavirus for the first time in animals when no work was done at that time in Kashmir. The team of rotavirus laboratory of Division of veterinary microbiology detected rotavirus virus in almost all the species,” she said.
As a laboratory officer in 2004 in the Disease Investigation laboratory Budgam, she with the support of the then Disease Investigation Officer set an idea of building a lab on a typical microbiological line. The lab is nicknamed as Dr Sabia’s Lab. “We started to extend antibiotic sensitivity testing isolation and identification of pathogenic microorganism that was a great help to the clinicians,” she added.
Making a career in the profession was not a cake walk for her. Starting her studies in veterinary science when the state was in turmoil and pursuing PhD research during motherhood was even more difficult. What she didn’t lose was her hope and her love towards science.
In 2017, during her Ph D, she worked on a bacteriophage lysed Pasteurella multocida vaccine that induced stronger immune response than the currently used alum precipitated vaccine and developed a DIVA ELISA assay (differentiation of vaccinated from infected animals). Her work has been published in various international journals.
She says, “My journey was not easy, but I never thought of giving up.”