-
Directory Profile for Sapna Chitlapilly Dass
- Associate Professor, Microbial Ecology and Microbiome Interactions
- Office:
- Kleberg 314A
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Phone:
- 979-314-8532
Education
- Undergraduate Education
- B.S., Zoology, University of Madras, India
- Graduate Education
- M.S., Applied Microbiology, University of Madras, India
- M.S., Industrial Biotechnology, Newcastle University, UK
- Ph.D., Food Microbiology, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland
Professional Summary
Sapna Chitlapilly Dass is an Associate Professor of Microbial Ecology in the Department of Animal Science. Research in the Dass lab focuses on the selection pressures shaping microbial ecology at the vital intersection of human health and agriculture. The program spans the full production continuum, from rangeland and farm through commercial processing, and treats detection of pathogens and resistance genes as inseparable from the ecology that sustains them.
We examine molecular ecology and multipartite microbiome interactions in contexts that include microbial recontamination in food processing environments, recurrent bacterial infections, wildlife disease spillover to domestic animals and humans, vector and pest driven threats to livestock, and antimicrobial resistance management across food production and processing.
Multi-species biofilms provide the mechanistic foundation for the pathogen persistence and recontamination research. We investigate how pathogens are recruited into established resident multi-species biofilm communities, how they adapt and persist within a shared niche, and how these protected populations seed later transmission through the production and processing environment.
In addition to the mechanistic work, the laboratory builds surveillance and diagnostic capability in operational settings, including quantitative molecular detection, high resolution sequencing and environmental DNA detections supporting early detection and response at state, national, and binational scale.
One Health provides the framework for our work, emphasizing the interconnected pathways of disease transmission among wildlife, livestock, the environment, and humans. Given that complexity, we take a systems approach supported by interdisciplinary collaboration, integrating microbial ecology, wildlife and vector ecology, biofilm biology, virology, biophysics, multi-omics, bioinformatics, and mathematical modeling.
Together, these approaches connect mechanism to action by revealing how pathogen persist and move across agricultural systems and translating that knowledge into earlier detection, targeted control, and more effective disease prevention.