astronomy

Kalai Mathee

Kalai Mathee is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Kalai Mathee rather than just read about it. In short: Kalai Mathee (born 30 August 1959) is a Malaysian microbiologist, who spent almost 25 years at Florida International University. She served as the first international editor-in-chief of the Journal of Medical Microbiology.

Key takeaways

Kalai Mathee belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Kalai Mathee to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Kalai Mathee from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Kalai Mathee (born 30 August 1959) is a Malaysian microbiologist, who spent almost 25 years at Florida International University. She served as the first international editor-in-chief of the Journal of Medical Microbiology. She is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the Royal Society of Biology. She is an equity advocate known for her research on bacterial infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, antimicrobial resistance, microbiome, and multiomics. Mathee founded the Global Health Consortium with a focus on partnerships in the Caribbean, Central, and South American regions. Her scientific networks span over 89 countries. She served as a WHO/PAHO Visiting Scientist and sabbatical at Harvard Medical School. Her equity leadership includes founding the MLK Hall of Fame at FIU and serving as a Trustee of the Microbiology Society (UK) and Royal Society of Biology. She was part of the Trustee board that led the governance restructuring of the Microbiology Society. She has chaired and co-chaired the biennial Pseudomonas Conference, which has attracted participants from over 31 countries. She has secured over $3.8 million in external funding, holds six patents, and has mentored over 175 professionals from diverse backgrounds. Her post-conflict educational work in Liberia and her sustained leadership in Asia-Pacific scientific networks (across 10 countries and spanning over 20 years) demonstrate her commitment to building capacity in the Global South and fostering authentic international partnerships.

Early life and education Kalai Mathee was born into a working-class family in Malaysia to Kuyilar Kaliaperumal and Loganayaki. She is of Tamil heritage and got her early education in a vernacular school SJKT Kerajaan in Ipoh. She has a Bachelor of Science in Genetics from the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, graduating in 1984, and completed her master's in molecular genetics focusing on Neisseria gonorrhoeae in 1986 under the tutelage of Chong-Lek Koh. Mathee did her Ph.D. (1992) at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center at Memphis under Martha Howe's guidance specializing in transcription. Mathee did two post-doctorate fellowships, one at Tufts University focusing on Helicobacter pylori pathogenesis in the year 1993; the other at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center working on Pseudomonas aeruginosa pathogenesis from 1993-1999. In 2018, she received her master's degree in Public Health in Health Policy and Management from Florida International University.

Career In 1999, Mathee moved to Florida International University where she was promoted to professor in 2013. She did a sabbatical at Harvard Medical School in Stephen Lory's lab from 2006-2007. In 2007 she was the founding chair of the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at Florida International University. In 2017, Mathee and Norman Fry were named co editors in Chief of the Journal of Medical Microbiology.

Research Since 1993, the major focus of Mathee's research has been the pathobiology of Pseudomonas aeruginosa chronic infections with specific emphasis on β-lactam resistance, alginate overproduction, comparative genomics, alternative therapies, and cystic fibrosis lung ecology. Her early research identified the function and regulatory mechanisms of the bacteriophage Mu. Her postdoctoral research focused on alginate gene regulation with a focus on the alginate-specific sigma factor, AlgT/U, and she was the first to show MucA is an inner membrane protein. Mathee also showed that polymorphonuclear leukocytes and oxygen radicals can contribute to mucoid conversion by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Mathee has examined the role of quorum sensing molecules in Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections, and demonstrated that alginate is not required for biofilm formation. Her work has used comparative genomics and transcriptomics to define variability across strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. A portion of Mathee's research is on β-lactam resistance, particularly the amp pathway where she showed the presence of a β-lactamase PoxB, two permeases, and coregulation of antibiotic resistance and other virulence factors mediated by AmpR. Current ongoing research focuses on exploring various microbiomes, including lung, irritable bowel syndrome, vaginal, and gut.

Selected publications Hughes, Kelly T.; Mathee, Kalai (1998-10-01). "The anti-sigma factors". Annual Review of Microbiology. 52 (1): 231–286. doi:10.1146/annurev.micro.52.1.231. ISSN 0066-4227. PMID 9891799. S2CID 39757445. Mathee, Kalai; Ciofu, Oana; Sternberg, Claus; Lindum, Peter W.; Campbell, Joan I. A.; Jensen, Per; Johnsen, Anders H.; Givskov, Michael; Ohman, Dennis E.; Søren, Molin; Høiby, Niels (1999-06-01). "Mucoid conversion of Pseudomonas aeruginos by hydrogen peroxide: a mechanism for virulence activation in the cystic fibrosis lung". Microbiology. 145 (6): 1349–1357. doi:10.1099/13500872-145-6-1349. ISSN 1350-0872. PMID 10411261. Adonizio, Allison; Kong, Kok-Fai; Mathee, Kalai (2008). "Inhibition of Quorum Sensing-Controlled Virulence Factor Production in Pseudomonas aeruginosa by South Florida Plant Extracts". Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. 52 (1): 198–203. doi:10.1128/AAC.00612-07. ISSN 0066-4804. PMC 2223872. PMID 17938186. Mathee, Kalai; Narasimhan, Giri; Valdes, Camilo; Qiu, Xiaoyun; Matewish, Jody M.; Koehrsen, Michael; Rokas, Antonis; Yandava, Chandri N.; Engels, Reinhard; Zeng, Erliang; Olavarietta, Raquel (2008-02-26). "Dynamics of Pseudomonas aeruginosa genome evolution". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 105 (8): 3100–3105. Bibcode:2008PNAS..105.3100M. doi:10.1073/pnas.0711982105. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 2268591. PMID 18287045. Kong, Kok-Fai; Schneper, Lisa; Mathee, Kalai (2010). "Beta-lactam antibiotics: from antibiosis to resistance and bacteriology: BETA-LACTAM RESISTANCE". APMIS. 118 (1): 1–36. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0463.2009.02563.x. PMC 2894812. PMID 20041868.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Kalai Mathee

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Kalai Mathee claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Kalai Mathee before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Kalai Mathee ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Kalai Mathee

In research: Kalai Mathee appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Kalai Mathee in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Kalai Mathee is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1959 births, Fellows of the American Academy of Microbiology, Florida International University alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Kalai Mathee outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Kalai Mathee in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Kalai Mathee means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Kalai Mathee out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kalai Mathee in simple terms?

Why does Kalai Mathee matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Kalai Mathee?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Kalai Mathee.