
Dr Khushboo Borah Slater B.Tech, DPhil
Academic and research departments
Section of Bacteriology, Infection and immunity research theme, School of Biosciences and Medicine.About
Biography
I graduated as an engineer in Biotechnology from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati India in 2013. I then moved to the UK to pursue my research career. I secured a DPhil in Plant Sciences from the University of Oxford in 2018. During my DPhil, I worked on profiling carbon metabolism of Rhizobia that fuelled nitrogen-fixation in legume plants and gained expertise in metabolic modelling, 13C-Metabolic Flux Analysis, untargeted mass spectrometry, 13C-isotopic tracing and biochemical studies.
In 2016, I joined the University of Surrey as a Research Fellow in the School of Biosciences and Medicine to work on Tuberculosis (TB) and Leprosy. I used 13C,15N and 2H isotopic labelling, metabolic modelling and metabolomics to study host-pathogen metabolic interactions. During 2019-2020, I developed a LC-MS/MS-based metabolomics to quantify compartment-specific oxysterol metabolism in mitochondria of primary immune cells. I am currently working with Prof McFadden's group to develop diagnostics for infectious diseases and in Nitrogen metabolism of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to identify novel drug targets to treat TB.
Areas of specialism
University roles and responsibilities
- Vice Chair Doctoral College Conference 2021
My qualifications
Affiliations and memberships
News
In the media
ResearchResearch interests
Nitrogen metabolism of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Host-pathogen interaction in tuberculosis and leprosy, Oxysterol metabolism in immune cells, Metabolomics, Metabolic Flux Analysis
Research projects
Mycobacterial metabolism in TB and leprosyUsing systems-based approaches to investigate intracellular metabolism of pathogens Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium leprae
Development of Mitochondrial-specific metabolomicsDeveloping a LC-MS/MS based method to quantify oxysterols in cellular compartments of primary immune cells and monocyte/macrophage cells lines
Developing smart diagnostics for infectionDeveloping diagnostic tools for klebsiella infection using loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and electrochemical assays
Oxysterols in inflammationTo quantify oxysterols in neutrophils during inflammation
Research interests
Nitrogen metabolism of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Host-pathogen interaction in tuberculosis and leprosy, Oxysterol metabolism in immune cells, Metabolomics, Metabolic Flux Analysis
Research projects
Using systems-based approaches to investigate intracellular metabolism of pathogens Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium leprae
Developing a LC-MS/MS based method to quantify oxysterols in cellular compartments of primary immune cells and monocyte/macrophage cells lines
Developing diagnostic tools for klebsiella infection using loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and electrochemical assays
To quantify oxysterols in neutrophils during inflammation
Supervision
Postgraduate research supervision
1. Yojana Rai, PhD student in Quantum Biology
2. Daniel Kim, Masters student in Biosciences
Publications
Highlights
- One-shot 13C15N-metabolic flux analysis for simultaneous quantification of carbon and nitrogen flux. Molecular Systems Biology, 2023
- Metabolic Flux Analysis and Constraint based modelling to reveal metabolic control in rhizobia. Science Advances 2021
- Metabolic fluxes for nutritional flexibility of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Molecular Systems Biology 2021
- Immune cell metabolism: Oxysterol metabolism is compartment specific. Redox Biology 2020
- Tuberculosis: Mycobacterium tuberculosis uses multiple host nitrogen sources. Cell Reports 2019
- Leprosy: Mycobacterium leprae uses host cell glucose as a carbon source. mBio 2019