Dr. Prasanna Honnavar did his PhD from WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Fungi of Medical importance in India and received a gold medal for his work during his PhD tenure. His focus of research was Malassezia infection, and he identified a novel species (M. arunalokei). He has published over twenty-four research articles in peer-reviewed medical journals with over 500 citations (h-index 13; i10-index 15). He has done more than eighteen presentations and won six awards at various national and international conferences and has also trained molecular mycology to medical faculty in national annual workshops. He is the reviewer and associate editor for many international journals.
More information: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=pUogyn4AAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate
He is currently Assistant Professor at AUACOM, Antigua and system coordinator of GI-II. He has been working in the medical mycology field for the last 13-years and teaching clinical microbiology and immunology to medical students for the past 6-years. He has recently been appointed as an American Society for Microbiology Country Ambassador to Antigua and Barbuda, in recognition of his achievements in the field.
Selected publications:
1. Subramanian A, devi S, Abraham G, Honnavar P. Trichosporon asahii infection associated with glomerulonephritis in a diabetic patient. Med Mycol Case Rep 2022. 35, 15-17.
2. Artemev A, Naik S, Pougno A, Honnavar P, Shanbhag NM. The association of microbiome dysbiosis with colorectal cancer. Cureus 2022. 14(2): e22156.
3. Honnavar P, Chakrabarti A, Dhaliwal M, Dogra S, Handa S, Lakshmi PVM, Rudramurthy SM. Sociodemographic characteristics and spectrum of Malassezia species in individuals with and without seborrhoeic dermatitis/dandruff: A comparison of residents of the urban and rural populations. Med Mycol. 2021 Mar 4;59(3):259-265.
4. Honnavar P, Dogra S, Handa S, Chakrabarti A, Rudramurthy SM. Molecular identification, and quantification of Malassezia species isolated from pityriasis versicolor. Indian Dermatol Online J. 2020. 11(2); 167-170.
5. Hussain A, Tabrez E, Peela J, Honnavar P, Tabrez S. Vitamin C: A Preventative, Therapeutic Agent Against Helicobacter pylori. Cureus 2018. 10(7): e3062.
6. P Honnavar, AK Ghosh, S Paul, SA Shankarnarayan, P Singh, S Dogra, A Chakrabarti, SM Rudramurthy. Identification of Malassezia species by MALDI-TOF MS after expansion of database. Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis. 2018. 92(2);118-123.
7. P Honnavar, A Chakrabarti, GS Prasad, J Joseph, S Dogra, and SM Rudramurthy. The lipase activities of Malassezia species isolated from Seborrhoeic dermatitis/dandruff patients. J Clin Diagn Res. 2018,12:DC17-DC19
Research interests:
Infectious diseases, clinical mycology, bacteriology, virology, molecular microbiology, genotyping, DNA sequencing, DNA barcoding, metabarcoding, microbiome, mycobiome, bioinformatics.
Get in touch with [email protected] (office GB14) if you want to get involved in any of the following projects (must be in at least 2nd year and .75 GPA):
1. ‘Molecular identification of keratinophilic fungi isolated from Antigua soil that has the potential to cause dermatomycoses’ (AUA funding) [investigators-Drs. Cross, Aparna, Jillwin)
2. ‘Cervical cancer and Human Papillomavirus awareness among women in Antigua and Barbuda’ (AUA funding) [investigators-Drs. Edmond Mansoor)
3. ‘The Antigua Diabetes Study’ [investigators-Drs. Edmond Mansoor)
4. ‘Metabarcoding Antigua Water. Using nextgen sequencing to explore the microbiome of Antigua’s water supply’ (Dept. of analytics-Antigua funding, as co-investigator)
5. ‘DNA Barcoding. Monitoring plant biodiversity on Antigua using molecular biology’ (AUA funding, as co-investigator)
6. ‘Barcoding Antigua High School Project. Training local high school students in molecular techniques’ (AUA funding, as co-investigator)