Dr Mohammad Katouli

• Molecular pathogenesis of septicaemic and uropathogenic E.coli and the host response to infection
• The impact of probiotics on bacterial translocation
• Prevalence and persistence of antibiotic resistance genes in hospital, sewage and surface waters
• Microbial source tracking and the impact of faecal pollution of surface waters on human health
• Population structure of gut E.coli and their role in causing urinary tract infection

Associate Professor Mohammad Katouli has been years of teaching and research experience in the area of medical microbiology, infectious disease and pathogenesis of bacteria both nationally and internationally. Following his PhD and post-doc experience in UK, he worked for three years at the R&D Department of the D.P Pharmaceuticals. In 1983, he took the position of the Head of Microbiology Department at the Pasteur Institute in Tehran where he conducted a number of national research projects on the aetiology of diarrheal diseases and the prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes in hospitals and the community. He also delivered lectures in medical microbiology and infectious diseases in several universities in Tehran.

From 1989, Associate Professor Katouli started working at the Microbiology and Tumorbiology Centre of the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden as a senior research fellow where he worked with many European scientists on several projects including “Pathogenesis of E.coli sepsis and bacterial translocation”, “Changes in the intestinal flora of sarcoma patients undergoing cytostatic therapy”, “Characterization of the gut microflora after inflammation of the intestinal reservoir in pouchitis patients” and “Virulence properties of E. coli strains associated with ulcerative colitis”. He was also involved in the development of a microplate-based automated biochemical fingerprinting method for epidemiological and ecological investigation of pathogenic bacteria in communities, hospital settings and surface waters.

In 1998, Associate Professor Katouli took up a teaching and research position at the University of the Sunshine Coast and established the Microbiology and Biotechnology program as well as courses in Medical Microbiology, Communicable diseases and epidemiology, Microbial Pathogenesis and Food Microbiology and Fermentation. His research areas include molecular pathogenesis of bacterial translocation and the impact of probiotics, Epidemiology and ecology of pathogenic clones of bacteria, population structure of gut E.coli and their association with urinary tract infection and microbial source tracking. He has been collaborating with many national and international scientists and research institutes and has supervised more than 32 Honours and 19 PhD and four Master students to completion during his scientific career. Some of his PhD students have also received travel grants to visit and work at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden as part of their PhD program.

Associate Professor Katouli has more than 147 peer-reviewed journal articles, reviews, book chapters and conference refereed proceedings in the areas of epidemiology of infectious diseases and pathogenesis of bacteria as related to humans, animals and environmental health as well as microbial source tracking. One of his papers entitled “Bulking fiber prevents translocation to mesenteric lymph nodes of an efficiently translocating E. coli strain in rats” published in "Clinical Nutrition" received the 1st prize for the best original article published in clinical nutrition in 1998 at the 21st Congress of the European Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition.

Publications

Many of Dr Mohammad Katouli's publications are available from the Coast Research Database.

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