Dr. Urvashi B Singh MD, PhD, FAMS

Professor, In-Charge, Tuberculosis Division,

Department of Microbiology,All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi

Dr Urvashi B Singh’s research interests include adult and pediatric tuberculosis, Drug resistant TB, TB treatment and novel regimens, TB epidemiology, TB diagnostics, novel biomarkers, HIV-associated TB, Non-tubercular mycobacteria and Mycobacterium avium-paratuberculosis. The research work includes multiple domains in Mycobacterium tuberculosis including understanding the epidemiology and pathogenesis of tuberculosis, molecular insights into spread of multidrug resistant tuberculosis, designing of novel rapid detection method for multidrug resistant tuberculosis, rifampicin resistance, molecular typing and whole genome sequencing. Her research has expanded knowledge of drug resistance mutations and molecular epidemiology of TB in India. Her pioneering work for detecting viable TB bacteria in treatment failure patients and subsequent work on therapeutic drug monitoring in this group of patients have direct policy relevance. She has ongoing research for newer drug regimens for Rifampicin sensitive and resistant TB. Her collaborative work on therapeutic use of the Indian vaccine against TB (MIP) paved the way for a Prevention of Disease vaccine trial. Her research on Biomarkers has yielded new molecules, which hold promise. Her work in the field of MDR contact tracing has yielded novel data and some novel hypothesis for relapse and reinfection TB and disease transmission. Her research has led to several patents, which are in different stages of translation to companies. One novel cost effective diagnostic tests for rapid detection of MDR and XDR TB has been validated by ICMR and will be taken up by a manufacturer shortly.

Tuberculosis laboratory is NABL accredited, fully equipped to offer complete diagnostic services for diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB), Non-tubercular Mycobacteria (NTM), and drug resistance to various anti-tubercular drugs by molecular as well as conventional methods. The laboratory offers microscopy, culture (both liquid and solid), PCR, Truenat, and Gene-Xpert for diagnosis of TB and NTM. In addition, the conventional drug sensitivity testing in liquid and solid culture media, Gene-Xpert, Truenat, Line Probe Assay are available for detecting resistance to both first line and second line drugs. The laboratory is equipped with state of art molecular typing techniques for TB. All the techniques are quality assured. The laboratory carries out research under several funded schemes (Extramural funding support for Whole Genome Sequencing, Early Bactericidal Activity, Therapeutic Drug Monitoring, Point of Care tests (Aptamer based), Novel biomarkers, Rapid molecular drug resistance detection, Molecular Epidemiology of MDR-TB).  

She is a Member, National TB Expert Group, National TB Elimination Program, GoI; Member, Subject Expert Committees, CDSCO (DCGI), GoI; Member, Diagnostic Committee, India TB Research Consortium, ICMR; Member, Operational Research Committee, National TB Elimination Program, GoI; Member, Project Review Committees of DBT, ICMR, TDB, GoI; Member, ICMR Task Force on Genital Tuberculosis; Member Editorial Board, Associate Editor, Frontiers in Medicine, Frontiers in Public Health and Frontiers in Microbiology; Scientific Collaborations with Several International and National Institutes; Reviewer for International and National Journals; More than 150 peer-reviewed Publications; Over 50 funded Research studies; Five patents

Publications:~150; Citations: 4386; H index: 32; I10 index: 67

 

Publications:

1.Urvashi B Singh, Mercy Rophina, Rama Chaudhry, Vigneshwar Senthivel, Kiran Bala et al. Variants of concern responsible for SARS-CoV-2 vaccine breakthrough infections from India. Journal of Medical Virology 2021; 94 (4), 1696-1700.

2. Amit Kaushik, Sabyasachi Bandyopadhyay, Chhavi Porwal, Alagiri Srinivasan, Lokesh A Rukmangadachar, Gururao Hariprasad, Srujana Kola, Jitender Kataria, Urvashi B Singh. 2D-DIGE based urinary proteomics and functional enrichment studies

to reveal novel Mycobacterium tuberculosis and human protein biomarker candidates for

pulmonary tuberculosis. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications; 619 (3), 15-2.

3. Nupur Sharma, DeeptiUpadhyay, Hitender Gautam,Uma Sharma, Rakesh Lodha, Sushil K. Kabra, Bimal K. Das, Arti Kapil, Anant Mohan, N. R. Jagannathan, Randeep Guleria, Urvashi B. Singh. Small molecule bio-signature in childhood intra-thoracic tuberculosis identified by Metabolomics.NMR in Biomedicine doi: 10.1002/nbm.4941.

4. C Porwal, A Kaushik, N Makkar, JN Banavaliker, M Hanif, R Singla, Urvashi B. Singh. Incidence and risk factors for extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis in Delhi region. 2013 PLoS One 8 (2), e55299.

5. UB Singh, T Rana, A Kaushik, C Porwal, N Makkar. Day zero quantitative mRNA

analysis as a prognostic marker in pulmonary tuberculosis category II patients on treatment. Clinical Microbiology and Infection 2012; 18 (11), E473-E481.