CRISPRized Horticulture Crops

Prof. Kamel A. Abd-Elsalam, Ph.D., is currently a research professor at the Plant Pathology Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Giza. Kamel earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Plant Pathology from Christian Alberchts University of Kiel (Germany) and Suez Canal University (Egypt). Dr. Kamel’s research interests include developing, improving, and deploying plant biosecurity diagnostic tools; understanding and exploiting fungal pathogen genomes; and developing eco-friendly hybrid nanomaterials for controlling toxicogenic fungi, plant diseases, and agroecosystems applications. He published 20 books related to nano-biotechnology applications in agriculture and plant protection. Since 2019, he has served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Elsevier book series “Nanobiotechnology for Plant Protection.” He also serves as the Series Editor of the Elsevier book series “Genome Modified Plants and Microbes in Food and Agriculture.” Dr Aftab Ahmad is currently working as Assistant Professor at Department of Biochemistry/ US-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Agriculture and Food Security (CAS-AFS), University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (UAF), Pakistan. Dr Aftab’s research interests include developing virus resistant and salt tolerant plants using CRISPR/Cas technology. He has published more than 15 research articles in international peer reviewed journals including Journal of Biomedical Sciences, Scientific Reports-Nature, PLOS One, Journal of Translational Medicine, Plant Molecular Biology Reporter, Molecules, Journal of Cereal Science, and Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution. Dr Aftab pursued his PhD and postdocs in Plant Molecular Biology from University of Shizuoka, Japan under Center of Excellence (COE, 21st Century) program. Dr Aftab also served as visiting scientist in department of plant sciences, University of California, Davis, USA. Dr Aftab has been teaching biochemistry and molecular biology at UAF and his research focuses in the area of CRISPR/Cas based genome editing in plants. Dr. Baohong Zhang is a full Professor at East Carolina University. His major research interest is on plant genetics and genomics with a focus on epigenetics and small RNA regulation. Dr. Zhang has developed a somatic embryogenesis and plant regeneration system for cotton tissue culture and transgenics; based on this, he also developed a system for CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing in cotton. He has published more than 200 papers with more than 9000 citations. During the past 20 years of his research and teaching, Dr. Zhang has been promoting genomics and biotechnology through research and education for a diversity of people. He has served on a various editorial boards of international journals and served as reviewers for more than 100 peer-reviewed journals as well as review panels for more than 30 national and international funding agencies. Dr. Zhang has delivered many keynote and/or invited lectures at different institutes and international conferences.