Savitri Sharma

Savitri Sharma is Director Emeritus, Laboratory Services - LVPEI Network and a visiting faculty member at LVPEI. She pursued her MBBS from VSS Medical College, Burla, Sambalpur, Odisha and MD (Medical Microbiology) from Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Pondicherry in 1982. She joined L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), Hyderabad in 1991 and established the ocular microbiology and clinical pathology services of the institute. Three decades on, the institute has recognized her contribution to ocular microbiology and instituted 'Dr Savitri Sharma Chair of Ocular Microbiology' in her name.

Dr Sharma diagnosed the first case of Acanthamoeba keratitis in India in 1987 and reported the first case of ocular microsporidiosis in India in 2003. She works in the area of keratitis of fungal, bacterial, Acanthamoeba, microsporidial origin; contact lens associated microbial keratitis, infectious endophthalmitis, antibiotic susceptibility of ocular isolates, molecular typing of Acanthamoeba, diagnosis and treatment of Pythium keratitis etc. She has guided six PhD students and one PhD student is currently working under her guidance. Having authored a book on Ocular Microbiology, 19 book chapters and 310 papers in peer-reviewed journals, she is a prolific science writer. At present her interests are the molecular diagnosis of eye infections, the role of biofilm in bacterial and Candida eye infections, correlation of ocular and gut microbiome in keratitis and uveitis, antibiotic susceptibility of drugs for Pythium keratitis, evaluation of non-antibiotic therapy for eye infections and hospital infection control.

In collaboration with Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, Dr Sharma was involved in the development of the Vision Chip (Xcyton) under CSIR (NMITLI) grant and the same is patented. Member of 10 prestigious associations of ophthalmology and microbiology including American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) and Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), she is the recipient of 21 awards including Senior Achievement Award of AAO.

Dr Savitri Sharma is currently the President of the USA based Ocular Microbiology and Immunology Group and has been the President of Indian Association of Medical Microbiologists and Society for Indian Human and Animal Mycologists. She was Editor-in-Chief of Indian Journal of Medical Microbiologists and is an active reviewer of 18 medical journals. She has received 19 grants from the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Biotechnology, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Bausch & Lomb International Research Program and British Contact Lens Association.