Clostridioides difficile  Research Team

​University of South Florida

 Soumyadeep Chakraborty,  PhD 

Rajath Talpady, BS​​

 Maryam with a B.Sc. in Physiology is an research assistant, working on antigen expression and purification as well as animal immunizations.

 Dr. Wang is a Research Assistant Professor. He has a strong background in microbiology, molecular biology, protein expression and purification, infectious diseases with a focus on pathogenesis of C. difficile, animal models of C. difficile infection (CDI) and development of vaccines against CDI.  He has published more than 50 scientific papers in peer reviewed journals. ​

Brianna Mumford, BS​​

Ethan Wasserman​​

Maryam Yusuph​​

Veronica Gosnell, BS 

​​​​​​​​​​​Lauren Lapeter, BS

Veronica is  a Graduate student in the Bioinformatics & Computational Biology Program, and works on the development of epitope-based vaccines and novel phage endolysins targeting C. difficile.

Junling Qin, PhD

Dr. Chakraborty is a Scientific Researcher and Research Associate. He has a strong background in molecular microbiology, molecular biology, protein engineering and expression with a recent focus on the pathogenesis of C. difficile and animal models of C. difficile infection. He was an Assistant Professor and the Department Head from 2018 to 2020 in the Department of Biotechnology & Bioinformatics, NIIT University, India. 

 Brianna is a Graduate student in the Biotechnology program at USF and works on vaccine development against C. difficile infection.  

 Adrit is an undergraduate student from the Judy Genshaft Honors Colllege - USF with a major in Biomedical Sciences in the 7-year accelerated BS/MD program from honor college, and  works on vaccine development using reverse vaccinology. 

Team

Dr. Sun is a Professor of Microbiology & Immunology in the Department of Molecular Medicine at the Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida (USF), where he also serves as Director of Translational Infectious Disease. He holds affiliate appointments in the Departments of Internal Medicine, Molecular Biosciences, and Chemistry and is a member of Microbiome Institute, Center for Global Health and Inter-Disciplinary Research, and Center for Antimicrobial Resistance, at USF Dr. Sun received his Ph.D. in Natural Sciences, magna cum laude, from the University of Kiel, Germany, and completed his postdoctoral training in Molecular Microbiology and Biochemistry at Brown University. His research focuses on microbial pathogenesis, host-pathogen interactions, and the development of vaccines and therapeutics against infectious diseases. A major focus of his laboratory is Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), including understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying C. difficile pathogenesis and host immunity and translating these discoveries into novel vaccines, immunotherapies, and antimicrobial strategies. His research has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since 2012, and his work has contributed to advances in both the fundamental understanding and translational targeting of CDI. Dr. Sun is nationally and internationally recognized for his research on C. difficile pathogenesis and vaccine and therapeutic development. He has served extensively on NIH study sections, including as a study section chair. He is an Associate Editor for Frontiers in Microbiology, and Frontiers in Immunology and serves on the editorial boards of Infection and Immunity and Applied and Environmental Microbiology. His honors include the Tufts Institute for Innovation Inaugural Award (2014), USF Faculty Outstanding Research Achievement Award (2018 & 2025), USF Excellence in Innovation Award (2020), and election as a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) in 2025. He has also held multiple leadership roles in the USF Chapter of the NAI, including President, Vice President, Secretary, and Executive Committee member. Outside the laboratory, Dr. Sun enjoys music, working out, and exploring cuisines from different cultures.​​

Lubem Agbendeh, MS

  Lubem is a PhD student and is working on vaccine development against C. difficile infection using reverse vaccinology. 

Adrit Roy​​

 Xingmin Sun,  PhD (Principal Investigator) 

Professor of Microbiology & Immunology

Director of Translational Research

E-mail: sun5@usf.edu

 Rajath is a Graduate student in the Bioinformatics & Computational Biology program at USF and works on vaccine development against C. difficile infection using reverse vaccinology.  


  Ethan is an undergraduate student with a major in Biomedical Engineering. He works on vaccine prediction.

 Shaohui Wang, PhD 

  Dr. Tomatsidou is a Research Associate with strong expertise in molecular microbiology, molecular biology and animal models of infectious diseases. He focuses on the functions of the surface layer components of C. difficile using cutting-edge technologies.