Biofortification of Grain and Vegetable Crops

Dr. Muhammad Tehseen Azhar works as an Associate Professor at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan, Pakistan, where his primary responsibility is teaching graduate and post-graduate classes. Additionally, his focus is on the screening and development of segregating population resulting in the development of several bulks of cotton with more yield and fibre traits. Dr. Azhar has specific interest in the development of cotton germplasm having tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. Being a Borlaug Alumnus, he worked with various cotton geneticists; namely, Dr. Richard Percy, Dr. Lori L. Hinze and Dr. James Frelichowski during a Norman E. Borlaug Fellowship at Texas A&M University and USDA-ARS, USA. Dr. Azhar is also an Endeavour Alumnus and was appointed as an Adjunct Lecturer at the School of Plant Biology, UWA. Recently, he was appointed as an Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Agriculture Sciences, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China. In addition, Dr. Azhar was appointed as a Chair of Germplasm and Genetic Stock in International Cotton Genome Initiative (ICGI). Muhammad Qadir Ahmad is an Assistant Professor at Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan, Pakistan. Dr. Ahmad has worked with the Genomics and Gene Discovery Research Unit, Western Regional Research Center at United States Department of Agriculture, California. Dr. Ahmad also worked as research assistant at Xuzhou Institute of Agricultural Sciences/Xuzhou Sweetpotato Research Centre, Jiangsu, China and is now appointed as an Adjunct Associate Professor at this institute. He teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Plant Breeding and Genetics. He has screened wheat germplasm stocks against heat and drought stresses. He has also developed various breeding populations of wheat. Iqrar Ahmad Rana is Associate Professor at University of Agriculture in Faisalabad, Pakistan. He did his PhD in Applied Molecular Biology of Plants from the University of Hamburg in Germany. During his stay in Germany he learned molecular cloning, invitro regeneration and transformation of cereals. Furthermore, he learned basic techniques in molecular phytopathology. Coming back to Pakistan he started his research group at the Center of Agricultural Biochemistry and Biotechnology (CABB), University of Agriculture in Faisalabad, Pakistan. Since then he has developed disease resistant germplasm in wheat and sugarcane. Dr. Rana successfully developed 'inplanta' transformation replacing tissue culture in multiple crop plants like wheat, maize, cotton, and brassicas. Rana Muhammad Atif is Assistant Professor at Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics at the University of Agriculture in Faisalabad, Pakistan. He also heads the Chickpea Biotechnology Lab at the Centre for Advanced Studies in Agriculture & Food Security, a joint USAID and HEC funded project at University of Agriculture. He was a visiting scientist at Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Climate Resilient Chickpea headed by Professor Douglas Cook at the University of California, Davis, USA. His research focuses on breeding grain legumes for abiotic stress tolerance with enhanced nutritional values. For this purpose, he has been employing genomic and molecular approaches for the characterization and development of germplasm. His research programs are supported by Higher Education Commission, Pakistan, Punjab Agricultural Research Board and USAID.