Bioinformatics in Agriculture: Next Generation Sequencing Era

Dr. Sharma’s research focuses on Agriculture Biotechnology, specifically on the characterization of genes and SSRs for abiotic stresses (drought and heat) and understating the role of epigenetics, Gene silencing and small RNAs in for wheat improvement. He has been associated with several networking projects funded as Agri-Bioinformatics Promotion Program, ACIAR-DST, and DBT-BBSRC, ICAR Networking projects on AMMAS, Cabin and AMAAS schemes etc. He has published 90 peer reviewed papers, editor of six books published in CRC, Elsevier and Academic Press, and 20 book chapters. Dr Sharma has been associated with a recently released bread wheat variety DBW71 and three trait specific genetic and has been awarded with ICAR-Lal Bahadur Shastri Outstanding Young Scientist Award, NAAS- Young Scientist 2007 and ISCA- Pran Vohra Awards. Dr Sharma is Chief Editor of Journal of Cereal Research and editorial of several journals.

Prof. Dinesh Yadav is Professor, Department of Biotechnology at D.D.U Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur, INDIA. Presently he is a coordinator of newly established “Centre for Genomics and Bioinformatics “at D.D.U Gorakhpur University. He was Head, Department of Biotechnology, D.D.U. Gorakhpur University from August 2016 to August 2019. He is also serving as nodal officer IPR cell at DDU Gorakhpur University since Jan 2019. He has also served as Associate Professor in Department of Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering at G.B Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar from 2006-2009. He has completed his Master Degree in Biotechnology from Devi Ahilya University, Indore in 1996 and Ph.D. from G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar in 2002. He has more than 19 years of teaching /research experiences. His areas of specialization are Molecular biology, Bioinformatics, Plant biotechnology and Enzyme technology. He has published more than 130 research papers including reviews, books, chapters in Books and proceedings in conferences and more than 230 GenBank accession numbers. He has guided 12 students for Ph.D. in Biotechnology and presently three students are pursuing PhD. He has been mentor for five post-doctoral fellowships namely UGC-Dr. D.S. Kothari (twice), DST-Women Scientist-A DST-Women Scientist-B and SERB-National PDF. He has also supervised 90 students for M.Sc. dissertation/short project work in Biotechnology. He has carried out projects from funding agencies like DBT, UGC, UP Council of Agricultural Research, Lucknow and DST. He has availed DST-BOYSCAST Fellowship at Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG), University of Adelaide, South Australia from 3rd May 2012-12th April 2013.He has been awarded Dr. Pushpendra Kumar Gupta Vishisht Krishi Vaigyanik Puraskar-2015 in the field of Agricultural Sciences by Uttar Pradesh Academy of Agricultural Sciences (UPAAS), Lucknow and Young Scientist Award-2008 by Uttarakhand Sate Council of Science & Technology in the discipline Biotechnology, Biochemistry and Microbiology. He is life member of scientific societies namely BRSI, Trivendrum, SBC(I), Bangalore, Indian Science Congress, Association, Calcutta, Society of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology, IARI, New Delhi, Association of Microbiologist of India (AMI), New Delhi and UPAAS, Lucknow. He has delivered more than 80 invited talks/ lectures in conference/symposium and also served as Mentor for DST-INSPIRE Science internship camp and Inspire-awards. Presently he is working on Plant specific transcription factor-DOF (DNA binding with One finger) and Nuclear Factor-Y (NF-Y) for developing biotic and abiotic stress tolerance crops and pectinases group of enzymes with potential applications in different industries. His research work has been published in National and International journals of repute like Journal of Experimental Botany, Planta, Theoretical and Applied Genetics, Process Biochemistry, Molecular Biology Reports, Plant Systematics and Evolution, Molecular Biotechnology, Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Annals of Microbiology, Journal of Basic Microbiology, 3 Biotech, Biologia, Journal of Cereal Sciences, Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants, Biochemistry (Moscow), Current Proteomics, Interdisciplinary Sciences: Computational Life Sciences, Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology, Cell Biochemistry and Biophysics, Online Journal of Bioinformatics, Chemistry and Ecology, African Journal of Biotechnology, Applied Biochemistry and Microbiology, SugarTech, Enzyme Research etc.

Prof. (Dr.) R.K. Gaur earned his Ph.D. in 2005, and is now a Professor at the Department of Biotechnology, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. His Ph.D. was on the molecular characterization of sugarcane viruses, i.e., mosaic, streak mosaic, and yellow luteovirus. He received a MASHAV fellowship of the Israeli government for his postdoctoral studies and joined The Volcani Center, Israel and Ben-Gurion University, Negev, Israel. In 2007 he received the Visiting Scientist Fellowship from the Swedish Institute, Sweden to work at Umea ̊ University, Umea ̊, Sweden. He received a postdoc fellowship from ICGEB, Italy in 2008. He has made significant contributions on sugarcane viruses and has pub lished 130 national/international papers, authored 17 edited books and presented about 50 papers at national and international conferences. He has been honored as a Fellow of Linnean Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, a Fellow of the Society of Plant Research, a Fellow of the Society of Applied Biology (FSAB), and a Fellow of the International Society of Biotechnology (FISBT). He has received many other awards, including the Prof. B.M. Johri memorial Award, Society of Plant Research (SPR); Excellent Teaching Award by Astha Foundation, Meerut; UGC-Research Teacher Award; Young Scientist Award in 2012 in Biotechnology by the Society of Plant Research (SPR), Meerut; and Scientific and Applied Research Center Gold Medal Award in 2011 for outstanding contribution in the field of Biotechnology. He has visited several laborato ries in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Thailand, Sweden, and Italy. Currently, he is han dling many national and international grants and international collaborative projects on plant viruses and disease management