Prof Kutubuddin A Molla, Scientist from ICAR-NRRI Odisha, India. Dr. Molla's areas of specialization are CRISPR/Cas tools development, Precise Genome Editing, Base Editing, Genetic Engineering, Transgenesis, Host-pathogen interaction.
His previous positions were: He was Fullbright Visiting Scholar, Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology, Pennsylvania State University, USA (2017-2019). He was the Scientist, Division of Genomic Resources, ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi. He has many publications and book chapters to his credit and is the recipient of many awards and recognitions.

Senior Scientist of Plant Biochemistry at ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research, Dr. Mangrauthia earned his bachelor\'s degree in Agriculture and Animal Husbandry from C.S.A. University of Agriculture & Technology Kanpur (2001); his master (2004) and doctorate degrees (2008) in Biochemistry from the Indian Agriculture Research Institute New Delhi. He did Postdoc from Purdue University, USA, and also was a visiting scientist at Heinrich Heine University Germany (2019) and at Louisiana State University USA (2020).

He is known for his creative and path-breaking research in the area of hot-pathogen interaction, pathogen genomics, epigenetics, and molecular mechanisms of environmental stresses. His laboratory at Indian Institute of Rice Research developed diagnostic tools for identification of RTBV and RTSV viruses, genome sequencing and genes characterization of RTBV and RTSV, molecular and physiological basis of host-virus interaction, development of virus and fungal resistant plants using RNAi.

His laboratory has also contributed to understand the fundamentals of molecular mechanisms of environmental stresses (high temperature tolerance, low P tolerance) and development and release of tolerant genetic stocks and heat tolerant rice varieties. Currently, Dr Mangrauthia is leading a research program on deployment of genome editing to create improved alleles in popular, elite, and mega rice cultivars of India. He has published 80 research papers, 18 review papers, 20 book chapters and authored 4 books. Dr. Satendra has won several grants of DST, DBT, and ICAR to carry out the research in frontier areas of plant biology. He is reviewer of many high impact journals and editor of Frontiers in Plant Science, BMC Plant Biology, Journal of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology, and Journal of Rice Research.

Dr Sudhakar Reddy Palakolanu works in the Cell, Molecular Biology & Trait Engineering Cluster (CMBTE) of the Research Program for Accelerated Crop Improvement at ICRISAT headquarters in Hyderabad,India. With over a decade of experience in molecular biology and gene research, Reddy specializes in discovering and characterizing genes associated with complex traits using advanced biotechnological techniques. Dr. Reddy\'s academic background includes a Ph.D. in Plant Molecular Biology from the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in New Delhi. Dr Reddy\'s expertise encompasses various aspects of plant molecular biology, functional genomics, and gene editing. Dr Reddy\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s primary focus involves establishing innovative technologies for dissecting and implementing traits in dryland crops. This entails using cutting-edge biotechnological tools to validate candidate genes identified through trait dissection in biological systems. His contributions have garnered recognition in the form of national awards, including the Young Scientist and Inspire Faculty awards from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India. Additionally, Dr Reddy received a prestigious Postdoctoral Fellowship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), allowing him to conduct research in Germany. His prolific research output comprises over 50 research articles, eight book chapters, two books, and two patents. Dr Reddy also serves as a reviewer for esteemed international journals such as Trends in Plant Science, Frontiers in Plant Science and BMC Plant Biology.

Dr. Soham Ray is a Senior Scientist (Agricultural Biotechnology) in the Division of Plant Physiology at ICAR–Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi. He completed his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from IARI and began his scientific career at ICAR–Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI) in 2012. In 2020, he joined IARI, where he has since been actively involved in genome-editing research. His work centres on plant stress biology, with the goal of understanding how crops respond to major biotic and abiotic stresses and contributing to the development of climate-resilient varieties. During his Ph.D., Dr. Soham Ray cloned and characterized the AvrPi54 gene from the rice blast pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae, for which he holds a patent. As a scientist, he has developed a novel strategy for identification of low-cost cross-transferable co-dominant markers to facilitate gene introgression from wild-relatives to cultivated crops and also contributed to studies on plant responses to environmental stresses individually and in combinations. He has also developed a copyrighted Windows-based software tool CRISP- PTG-Assembler that streamlines primer design for multiplex CRISPR/Cas9 applications. Besides, he is a co-developer of the genome-edited rice Pusa DST1 developed by ICAR- IARI. Dr. Soham Ray is the recipient of the Prof. M. Udayakumar Memorial Young Scientist Award (2023) conferred by Indian Society for Plant Physiology and the Young Scientist Award (2024) conferred by the Academy of Agricultural Science, Kalyani, West Bengal. His current research employs genetic screens, including overexpression and CRISPR/Cas9- mediated gene knockout, to support the development of stress-resilient crop varieties.

Dr Yogesh Taparia is currently the co founder of PhytoBioworks Pvt Ltd which is involved in crop improvement research. His expertise in cloning and transformation has been honed during his stint with the Genetic Discovery division at Corteva. He has extensive experience in transformation of commercial crops and model plant systems.

Tom is currently working as a Post Doc in the lab of Alain Tissier (2015-now). His main interests are regulatory tools for programmable nucleic acid targeting (TALEs, amiRNAs, CRISPR systems) and their application in synthetic circuits, metabolic engineering as well as genome editing in plants.Tom started his scientific career in the field of plant-pathogen interactions. During his PhD in the lab of Ulla Bonas (2010-2015, MLU Halle) he worked on transcription activator-like effectors (TALEs). During this time Tom worked with transcriptional regulation and mechanistic insights of nucleic acid binding proteins. After PhD he moved to the field of synthetic biology in the lab of Alain Tissier (2015-now, IPB Halle).

Professor KC Bansal is a former Director of the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi. He also spearheaded the National Transgenic Crop Network across various ICAR research institutions.
His research interests include functional genomics and transgenic development for abiotic stress tolerance in plants; developed the first series of transgenic crops with improved tolerance to drought and salt stress. His work on functional characterization of LEA, MYB, sHSP and osmotin gene is well known. The first ABA receptor gene OsPYL10 from an Indian drought tolerant rice landrace was cloned by his lab.
He took an unprecedented initiative to evaluate the entire wheat germplasm (~ 22000 accessions) conserved at the Indian National Genebank, and identified trait-specific reference sets.
Prof. Bansal served as Vice-Chair (Asia), Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, FAO, United Nations (2013-15). He is recipient of the Indian Science Congress award conferred on him by the Prime Minister of India, and the Haryana Vigyan Ratna (Highest State Science award).
Prof. Bansal is elected Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and the National Academy of Science, India. He serves on the Editorial Board of the Plant Biotechnology Journal.

Dr. C Viswanathan, Principal Scientist & Head, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India, heading Division of Plant Physiology currently. His international experience includes various programs, contributions and participation in different countries for diverse fields of study.  His research interests reflect in his wide range of publications in various national and international journals.He has been awarded by  ICAR Jawaharlal Nehru Award, DST BOYSCAST Fellowship Award,ISPP J.J. Chinoy Gold Medal.