Indira Kudva, Ph.D., is a research microbiologist at the United States Department of Agriculture—Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), National Animal Disease Center in Ames, Iowa. She received her B.S in zoology and M.S. in medical microbiology from India, and a Ph.D. in microbiology, molecular miology and miochemistry from the University of Idaho under the mentorship of Dr. Carolyn H. Bohach. Subsequently she completed postdoctoral fellowships, in microbiology at the University of Idaho, and in infectious diseases with Dr. Stephen B. Calderwood at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Kudva has dedicated her career to the study of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) interactions with animal and human hosts. Her current research is focused on preharvest control of STEC in cattle to mitigate "farm to fork" contamination of food. Projects in Kudva’s laboratory, designed to analyze STEC colonization dynamics and identify key targets for therapeutic and diagnostic use, address: (i) STEC factors that promote survival and persistence in the ruminant host, (ii) STEC interactions with the bovine gastrointestinal cells and adherence mechanisms deployed in a strain and host-dependent manner, (iii) development of rational vaccines and vaccine-alternatives targeting STEC in cattle and (iv) development of diagnostic assays to study STEC adherence and identify STEC-colonized cattle.