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Menuka Bhandari awarded IDI Trainee travel award from the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI)

May. 19, 2023
Menuka Bhandari

Menuka Bhandari, advised by Dr. Gireesh Rajashekara, was awarded IDI Trainee travel award from the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) Ecology, Epidemiology, and Population Health (EEPH) thematic area. The purpose of this award is to:

  • To enable trainees in the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) Ecology, Epidemiology and Population (EEPH) thematic program to attend conferences in their areas of interest and present their work.  Awards are intended to enhance the trainee experience and further the work of IDI member labs and the institute by providing greater exposure for the work presented and for the efforts of the EEPH thematic area. 

"Menuka Bhandari is originally from Dhading, Nepal. She is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Animal Sciences at Ohio State University under Dr. Gireesh Rajashekara. Her work mainly focuses on Salmonella. One of her works is to analyze the whole genome sequences of different Salmonella isolates collected from small specialty crop farms around Northeast Ohio, which she will be presenting at the ASM conference in Texas. With this study, she is trying to understand the diversity, anti-microbial resistance genes, virulence genes, and plasmids of Salmonella. This study would help in the formulation of mitigation strategies to prevent Salmonella transmission from farms to humans. She is grateful to the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) Ecology, Epidemiology, and Population Health (EEPH) for providing her with the Trainee Travel Award."

Menuka will be presenting her work in the upcoming American Society for Microbiology Annual meeting (ASM Microbes) in Huston Texas, June 15- 19, 2023. To learn more about the American Society for Microbiology Annual meeting CLICK HERE.