Microbiome, Probiotics & Gut Nutrition

Kamala Janiyani is an instructor at UC San Diego Extension where she teaches and organizes workshops on Microbiome and Human health and Technology licensing. Additionally, in collaboration with San Diego center for systems biology she has organized several workshops on Intellectual property and licensing during the last five years.

Microbiome, Biotherapeutics

Jason M. Crawford received his doctoral training at the Johns Hopkins University before conducting a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School. He began his independent research lab in the Chemical Biology Institute at Yale in 2012 and is currently the Maxine F. Singer ’57 PhD Associate Professor of Chemistry and of Microbial Pathogenesis. Jason is an active member of the Yale Cancer Center Developmental Therapeutics Program and of the Yale Center for Pulmonary Infection Research and Treatment. Jason’s lab focuses on decoding novel bacterial metabolic pathways associated with human hosts. The lab also interrogates their broader roles in cell biology and medicine.

Microbial pathogenesis, Human microbiota

Director ORIC, Distinguished National Professor/ Professor Emeritus/Tenured Professor, Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, GC University, Lahore. 1. Chairperson, Pakistan Chapter of Federation of Asian Biotech Associations (2012-to date) 2. General Secretary, Pakistan Chapter of Federation of Asian Biotech Associations (2005-2012) 3. Vice-Chairperson, International Organization for Biotechnology and Bioengineering (2007-2008) 4. Member, American Chemical Society (2006-2008) Member, International Association of Science and Technology for Development (IASTED) Technical Committee on Biomedical Engineering (2003-2006

Biotechnology & Applied Biochemistry

Dr. Qiaoyun Huang is a Changjiang Scholar Professor, Distinguished Young Scholar of NSFC, professor of environmental microbiology at Faculty of Resources and Environment, Vice Director of State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural University, China. His research focuses on the interfacial processes of soil mineral-organic matter-microorganism interactions and environmental impacts. He has published more than 140 referred SCI papers. He is currently the vice chairman of Commission 2.5 of International Union of Soil Sciences, and the executive member of the International Advisory Committee of International Society for Environmental Biogeochemistry. He was the Chairman of the 4th International Symposium on Interactions of Soil Minerals with Organic Matter and Microorganisms and the 21st International Symposium on Environmental Biogeochemistry. He serves as the editorial member for several international journals such as Applied Soil Ecology, Journal of Soils & Sediments, Frontier in Microbiology and Geomicrobiology Journal

Applied Soil Ecology,Environmental microbiology,Geomicrobiology

For being B.Sc. (Ag) and M.Sc.(Ag) from BHU, he was awarded Ph.D. in Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry by Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi in 1992. He started his academic career as Sr. Research Assistant followed by UGC- Reasearch Associate at BHU. After that he joined DRDO as Scientist ‘C’ in 1996 at IAT, Pune and finally served Defence Agricultural Reasearch Laboratory, now Defence Institute of Bio Energy Research, Pithoragargh, Uttarakhand. There he worked as Officer-in-Charge of DARL Field Stations at Arabachauhan (Barmer) and Auli (Joshimath). He joined as lecturer in 2003, became Reader in 2004 and presently serving as Professor in the Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, India. The area of his research of interest has been soil microbiology / microbial biotechnology / organic farming / soil fertility with emphasis on development of quality plant growth promoting rhizobacteria using molecular tools and techniques to enhance crop production and maintenance of soil health under organic and integrated nutrient management system in Indo-gangatic plains of India. During his tenure in DRDO, he, first time, studied the soils of Leh and Ladakh. In addition to propagation of medicinal plants including seabuckthorn, agriculture and environmental warfare, development of technologies for season / off-season (protected) vegetables and their dissemination to the locals and Jawans of army unites staying at high altitude were his interest area of research work. However, he is still involved in revival of cold desert soils of Himalayan region by means of bioinoculants. Besides executing 12 research projects, guiding 10 Ph.D. and 27 M.Sc. (Ag) students at BHU he has published more than 100 research papers in journals of national and international repute, 7 book chapters and may popular articles. Dr. Yadav is presently acting as reviewer of research papers in many journals of national and international repute. He joined 20th World Soil Science Congress held at Jeju, South Korea during 2014 and he has been a recipient of Fellow of Uttar Pradesh Academy of Agricultural Sciences, BHU-Research Fellowship, UGC-Post Doctoral Fellowship, Award of “Best Research Paper by DRDO. Besides serving as member of different committees of administrative bodies in BHU, he has also been elected as Councilor of Indian Society of Soil Science, New Delhi for the year of 2009 and 2010

Soil science, Agriculture Chemistry

Stoffer has acquired a BSc-degree in Tropical Agriculture at the Royal Dutch College for Tropical Agriculture (Deventer, the Netherlands) and was trained a Nutritionist (MSc) at Wageningen University (1992) and has obtained his PhD in Medical Sciences/Immunology at the Academic Medical Centre of the University of Amsterdam/ (1998). Following a career in the food supplement industry as science communicator and health educator he founded NutriClaim in 2007 (www.nutriclaim.com), providing specialist services pertaining to the scientific substantiation of health claims made on food, and in the marketing authorization of Novel Foods in the EU. In addition, Stoffer is a voluntary member of the Pool of International Experts, assessing project proposals for grants to applied research contributing to innovation for food security and private sector development in the 15 partner countries of Dutch development cooperation at the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research /Science for Global Development (WOTRO)/Food & Business Applied Research Fund (ARF). Currently, Stoffer also is Work Package Leader in the EU FP7-funded project “MyNewGut - Microbiome Influence on Energy balance and Brain Development-Function Put into Action to Tackle Diet-related Diseases and Behavior”. Stoffer is valued by his collaborators and clients for his professionalism, integrity and flexibility.

Food security

Dr. Arup Ghosh, Senior Scientist & Head, Agronomy and Biofertilizer Group, Biotechnology and Phycology Division in a top CSIR laboratory has his expertise in development and evaluation of biostimulants developed from marine seaweeds (macroalgae) on crops and soil. He has the passion for improving the livelihood opportunities and profitability of farmers through innovative products in a sustainable manner. His research findings through agronomic trials and molecular tools have helped opened new insights regarding the use of seaweed biostimulants enabling the entrepreneurs to commercialize and take these products to the farming community in a big way. He has years of experience in research, evaluation, teaching and administration and has executed several national and International projects. He has to his credit many book chapters, popular articles and more than 80 peer reviewed articles in Journals of repute. His research approach is based on the felt needs of the stakeholders and has won accolades to the Institute he is associated with

Agronomy,Sea weed Biostimulants, Soil Biology,Transcriptomics, Metagenomics

Ashish is working as a research scholar on a project titled ‘Biostimulants from endophytic fungi: A novel approach for sustainable farming’. His aim is to develop an environment friendly plant growth regulator from endophytic fungi that can enhance overall plant growth in terms of yield and plant vigour. The biostimulant developed from this work can replace existing chemical fertilizers used in agricultural fields and can promote sustainable farming.

Biostimulants, Plant Research

El Hafid NABTI was born on 06.25.1977 in Barbacha-Bejaia (Algeria). He received a Graduate Studies Diploma in Microbiology in September 2000 at the University of Bejaia. He obtained his Master Degree in Microbiology followed by a Doctorate of Sciences in Microbiology respectively in May 2003 and June 2008. He stayed at the same university where he launched his career as a lecturer and researcher. His work focuses on rhizospheric microbiology, restoration of plant growth under abiotic stress, the use of bacteria and algae in stimulating cereals growth. Biocontrol, bioremediation; Microbial ecology and agricultural microbiology are also his areas of interest.

Biocontrol Bioremediation, Microbial ecology, Agricultural microbiology.

Dr. Jay Prakash Verma has done his M.Sc. (2006) and Ph.D. (2010) on plant-microbes’ interaction and PGPR from Department of Botany, BHU. Presently, he is working as a Senior Assistant Professor in IESD, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, India since 26 Feb, 2011. He is presently a Visiting fellow at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia and his research work on the core microbiome of cotton plants at Western Sydney University since 1 Dec, 2017 to 31 July, 2018. He has more than 11-year research expertise on rhizosphere microbes and development of effective plant growth promoting microbial consortium as biofertilizer, bio stimulators for multiple crop production. His research expertise encompasses Biofertilizer, Phytomicobiome, Bio-pesticide, PGPR, PGPF, Sustainable Agriculture, Plant-Soil-Microbe Interaction, Soil Fertility and Soil Health Management, Pesticide Degrading Microbes for bioremediation, soil molecular biology and climate resilient agricultural production, Bioethanol Production. He has more than 70 articles that have been cited more than 1842 times (Google citations) and has a cumulative impact factor of more than 120. He has more than 8 research project related to plant-microbe interactions. He has visited Spain, Paris and Shanghai, China countries. He is serving as Technical Editor for several international Journals; Biotechnology, Journal of Applied Sciences, International Journal of Soil Science, Asian Journal of Biological Sciences and Bacteriology Journal. He is a member of the Editorial Board for the journals Agriculture for Sustainable Development published by Social and Farmers Welfare Society, Journal of Environmental and Social Sciences, International Journal of Research Studies in Microbiology and Biotechnology, International Journal of Research Studies in Agricultural Sciences, International Journal of Research in Environmental Science, Microbial Biosystems Journal (The Arab Society for Fungal Conservation). He acts as a reviewer for various peer reviewed national and international journals of publishers e.g. Nature publishing group, Elsevier, Springer, Willy, Taylor and Francis. We are also Project evaluator: Evaluator of The Czech Academy of Sciences, Science Support Division in Czech Republic, European Commission for expert as project evaluator.

Microbiology, Biotechnology

Dr Dibyajyoti Banerjee, MD is currently Additional Professor, Department of Experimental Medicine and Biotechnology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India. He is interested in developing novel concepts for drug development and his several concepts are published and many researchers are working with it. His focus in drug development is diabetes and tuberculosis. Apart from drug development he is interested in developing point of care testing tools. In this area also he has developed several tools which are in current use.

Biotechnology, Drug development

Yogesh Kumar Negi has his expertise in ‘Plant-Microbe’ interaction with a particular interest in the development of bioinoculants for small farm agriculture in Uttarakhand Himalaya in India. In a decade of his research, over 500 farmers are benefitted with site specific bioinoculants. Bacillus spp. and Pseudomonas fluorescence are his choice of organisms for the development of effective formulations. With a vast work on plant growth promotion and disease management, his current focus in on enhancing the nutritive quality of the crops using the microbial friends.

Plant-Microbe interactions, Agricultural sciences

Professor Amadou Hamadoun Babana, with an MSc and PhD in agricultural microbiology from Laval University, has his expertise in soil-plant-microorganisms interactions in improving plant production and protection. His research activities are based on the optimization of microbial communities of soils and plants to formulate biofertiliser and biopesticides to support global food production. He has built this technology after years of experience in research on the exploitation soil and plant microbial genetic diversity to improve plant mineral use efficiencies and plant protection against pathogens and diseases. His research is based on the methodology to access microbiomes and make diverse microbial communities support resilience productivity. This approach shoved a great potential for crop improvement and enhanced yield.

Biofertilizers, Biopesticides

Dr. Hira Sabir Malik has her expertise in evaluation and passion in improving the health and wellbeing. Her open and contextual evaluation model based on responsive constructivists creates new pathways for improving healthcare. She built this model after years of experience in research, evaluation, teaching and administration both in hospital and education institutions. The foundation is based on years of evaluating services of the health care organization, which is a methodology that utilizes the previous generations of evaluation: measurement, description and judgment. It allows for value-pluralism. This approach is responsive to all stakeholders and has a different way of focusing.

Public Health Eduaction

Dr. Meena Sakharkar obtained her PhD from the National University of Singapore, followed by postdoctoral training at Stanford University on discordant introns and intronless genes in eukaryotic genomes. She was assistant professor with concurrent appointments as head, Pharmacogenomics and deputy director for the Advanced Design and Modeling Lab at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Before joining the University of Saskatchewan, Dr. Sakharkar was a professor at the Graduate School of Life and Environmental Science at the University of Tsukuba, Japan. Dr. Sakharkar is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Saskatchewan. Dr. Sakharkar’s research interests are in drug target identification and validation using multiple cross-disciplinary approaches. Two research streams are pursued in her research program: The first one includes the design and development of novel drugs against pathogenic bacteria that can delay the development of resistance. Here, she is developing a framework for finding novel therapeutics for pathogenic bacteria by using techniques such as fragment based drug design. She aims to design and develop novel phytochemical based hybrid antimicrobial agents that can be safely administered to dairy cattle for treating mastitis. The second research stream is aimed at understanding the molecular mechanism of PPAR gamma action and incorporates establishment of the link PPAR gamma targets and its regulated pathways. PPAR gamma is a ligand activated transcription factor and has been shown to play a role in diabetes and cancer. Dr. Sakharkar has published more than 75 articles in peer reviewed international journals and has edited two books on genomics and drug discovery. Her research is currently funded by NSERC, ADF, Mitacs, SaskMilk and SHRF, Canada.

Pharmacogenomics

Mona S. Zayed is currently an Associate professor in Agricultural Microbiology Department, Director of Microbial inoculant Unit, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University. She obtained her Ph.D. 2007, in Agricultural Microbiology from Faculty of Agriculture Ain-Shams Univ. Cairo Egypt. She is teaching more than 8 undergraduate/postgraduate courses in the Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University. Mona’s research interests include Biofertilizer, Biomass production, microbial formulation and Agricultural Wastes Management and she has many publications in this field. She participated in different projects in her field of experience. She currently acts as supervisor or co-supervisor to a number of researchers (10 Masters and Ph.D. theses). Mona has been involved in organizing and instructing different workshops related to scientific integrity that sponsored by the National Academy of Science. She is a member of different scientific societies. She acts as a peer reviewer for more than 10 international scientific journals. She also acts as an editorial board member in the: Frontiers in Environmental Microbiology Science Publishing Group.

Biofertilizer, Biomass production, microbial formulation, Agricultural Wastes Management

Doctoral Studies at Doctoral School of Engineering Sciences, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine "Ion Ionescu de la Brad" Iași, Romania; Researches regarding the influence of some ecological foliar fertilizers on crop yield and quality of cultivated medicinal and aromatic species. Leader/Organizer/Participant in EU Projects/Courses/Trainings in France, Poland, Latvia/Turkey/Romania.

Agricultural Sciences