The increase of antimicrobial resistance over the past decades poses a great threat to global health. Without new strategies to understand and combat resistance, routine medical procedures and treatments could face growing risks in the years ahead.
This is the central focus of the research of Anuradha Goswami, assistant research professor in Notre Dame’s Department of Biological Sciences. She evaluates environmental factors implicated in the rise of antimicrobial resistance and uncovers the molecular mechanisms that cause it.
Goswami’s research is interdisciplinary, combining environmental engineering, environmental microbiology, and bioinformatics. Mainly, she explores the relationship between environmental pollution and the presence of antimicrobial resistance.
Her research incorporates analyzing different environmental landscapes. She studies how different environmental stressors, such as pollution and temperature change, could influence the spread of antimicrobial resistance. This research ties the environment and hospital acquired infections together.
She maps plasmid exchange in the environment, noting what factors cause them to move across the landscapes and their direct link to pollution. She and her collaborators investigate this exchange across Superfund sites, which are heavily contaminated locations across the country, often caused by factories, landfills, or mines, as well as non-Superfund sites such as wastewater treatment plants and residential areas.
“My research showed that areas with greater pollution tend to have more antimicrobial resistance genes. This means higher pollution might help spread antibiotic resistance to nearby zip codes,” she said.
Goswami investigates the molecular mechanisms behind developed resistance within bacteria. By uncovering mechanisms of resistance acquisition, she can tap into them and devise a strategy for further interventions and treatment strategies.
The ND research team has facilitated several partnerships, such as one with South Bend Water Works, allowing Goswami to work closely with them to investigate factors influencing antimicrobial resistance emergence, she said.
“We plan to employ a genomics-based approach to develop intervention strategies aimed at reducing the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance in wastewater,” Goswami said.
Additionally, she focuses on gathering preliminary data on the molecular mechanisms underlying antimicrobial resistance. She investigates bacterial compounds involved in iron sequestration and has observed that certain molecules are released in response to oxidative stress. Goswami theorizes that these molecules play a role in stress regulation and may contribute to bacteria gaining cross-resistance to heavy metals and antibiotics.
Her research goals for the future are to expand into the policy side of environmental research. Because Goswami’s research is relevant to public health, she looks forward to collaborating with socio-economic policy makers, faculty, and professionals.
“I hope to fill in the gaps in knowledge about environmental matters, in order to affect policy changes,” she said.
Goswami became interested in the emerging field of genetic engineering after high school. She earned her bachelor’s degree at SRM University in Chennai, followed by a master’s degree in Environmental Science and Engineering at Birla Institute of Technology in Mesra, India. She completed her doctoral studies in Environmental Engineering at Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, United Kingdom, where her research focused on oxidation-based water treatment methods for removing pharmaceuticals and pesticides from drinking water.
In 2020, she relocated to the United States and pursued postdoctoral training at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) alongside her partner Bharat Mishra, now an assistant professor of the practice in the Department of Biological Sciences.
Although Goswami’s background was in engineering and UAB’s department’s strengths were in biology, in her postdoctoral training under Jeffrey Morris, she successfully transitioned into interdisciplinary research and developed expertise in microbiology, evolutionary research, and bioinformatics.
During her two-and-a-half-year postdoctoral appointment, she was working on the Black Queen hypothesis testing how bacteria evolve to lose genes for essential, but costly, functions. Evolved bacteria rely on helper bacteria which fail to lose genes to provide costly resources (public goods for survivability). Simultaneously during the progression of her postdoctoral study, Goswami established her independent focus on antimicrobial resistance, studying the influence of heavy metal pollution on bacteria to gain resistance against antibiotics.
Goswami expressed her admiration for Notre Dame and feels the University aligns with her goals.
“Upon learning about the slogan ‘a force for good,’ I recognized that my research shares the same purpose as Notre Dame’s core mission by addressing pressing global issues that have a direct impact on public health,” she said.
Originally published by at science.nd.edu on April 17, 2026.