Areas of Study
Vaccine development and mucosal immunity against lung infectious disease.
Education
- Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, India 2016PhD
Research
Dr. Singh’s laboratory focuses on studying the immunology and pathogenesis of bacterial and viral infections at lung mucosal sites. He investigates the establishment of resident T cells and macrophage populations at mucosal sites and assesses their protective roles. To understand the molecular pathways and regulation of innate and adaptive cells in disease conditions, his laboratory utilizes various mouse models infected with Streptococcus pneumoniae, Y. pestis, SARS CoV-2 and influenza virus.
Pneumonic plague
Plague or black death is one of most fearsome, zoonotic disease in the human history, caused by the infection of Yersinia pestis. Since 1990, plague is mostly endemic in Peru, Madagascar and Democratic Republic of Congo. However, public health concerns for Y. pestis should not be neglected due to persistence of this bacteria in wild rodent reservoirs and the emergence of multi-drug resistant strains. Dr. Singh has developed and characterized Y. pseudotuberculosis based recombinant vaccines against plague and yersiniosis. He has identified the establishment of antigen specific resident T cell population at the lung mucosal sites and their protective roles against lethal pneumonic plague. His studies further establish different strategies to assess the molecular mechanism of immune protection against plague and yersiniosis.
SARS CoV-2 pneumonia
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr. Singh was involved in research projects evaluating the impact of vaccinations in mice co-infected with both pneumococcal and SARS CoV-2. He has identified that the co-infection of seasonal pneumonia along with SARS CoV-2 would increase fatalities in multiple folds. The Covid-19 research work in his laboratory was greatly expanded with the inclusion of various SARS CoV-2 variants of concerns (VoCs). Dr. Singh’s lab is exploring pathogenesis and immune responses against the SARS CoV-2 VoCs using in-vitro and in-vivo models. He has also received a five-year NY state award for developing a pentose polysulfate based nasal spray against SARS CoV-2 VoCs and to study the application of novel biomolecules as therapeutic or prophylactic intervention against Covid-19.
Publications
Yuefan Song, Amit Singh, Maisha M. Feroz, Shirley Xu, Fuming Zhang, Weihua Jin, Dennis W. Metzger, Robert J. Linhardt, and Jonathan S. Dordick (2024). Seaweed-derived fucoidans and rhamnan sulfates serve as potent anti-SARSCoV-2 agents with potential for prophylaxis. Carbohydrate Polymers 337(1)122156.
Singh, A.K., Majumder, S., Wang, X., Song, R., & Sun, W. Lung resident memory T cells activated by oral vaccination afford comprehensive protection against Pneumonic Yersinia pestis infection. J. Immunol. 210(3), 259-270. 2023.
Barman, T.K., Singh, A.K., Bonin, J.L., Nafiz, T.N., Salmon, S.L., & Metzger, D.W. Lethal synergy between SARS-CoV-2 and Streptococcus pneumoniae in hACE2 mice and protective efficacy of vaccination. JCI Insight, 7(11): e159422. 2022.
Wang, X., Li, P., Singh, A.K., Zhang, X., Guan, Z., Curtiss III, R., & Sun, W. Remodeling Yersinia pseudotuberculosis to generate a highly immunogenic outer membrane vesicle vaccine against pneumonic plague. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(11), e2109667119. 2022.
Singh, A.K., Stellrecht, K.A., Arunachalam, T., Barman, T.K., Robek, M.D., Waxman, M.J., ... & Metzger, D.W. Lack of active SARS-CoV-2 virus in a subset of PCR-positive Covid-19 congregate care patients. J. Clinical Virol. 141, 104879. 2021
Singh, A.K., Curtiss III, R., & Sun, W. A recombinant attenuated Yersinia pseudotuberculosis vaccine delivering a Y. pestis YopENt138-LcrV fusion elicits broad protection against plague and yersiniosis in mice. Infection and Immunity, 87(10), 10-1128. 2019