Dr. Ashwani Pareek is Executive Director of NABI a prominent plant biologist and educator noted chiefly for his contribution in plant molecular biology and biotechnology. He is currently working as Professor of plant molecular biology and biotechnology at the School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and adjunct professor at the University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia.

He is a recipient of several honors including the Visitors award for Technology Development from the President of India for developing Stress Tolerant Rice of the Next Generation (STRONG) that has the potential to enhance the income of rice farmers. The award ceremony was held at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on 2 May 2018. Recently on 26 February 2020, he has been awarded "Tata Innovation Award 2020" by Department of Biotechnology, Govt of India. He has interest in understanding the physiological and molecular adaptations in xero-halophytic plants and development of transgenic rice
plants with enhanced tolerance towards multiple abiotic stresses. Pareek received bachelor's degree in botany and master's degree in plant molecular biology from the University of Delhi. He then joined the laboratory of Professor Anil Grover at the same university in 1992 for doctoral research (PhD) work on ‘Molecular Characterization of stress proteins in Oryza sativa L. with emphasis on 90 kDa family’.

After receiving PhD degree, Pareek received the prestigious Post Doctoral Fellowship by The Rockefeller Foundation, New York and worked with Professor Ralph S.Quatrano at the University of North Carolina, USA during 1997-98. He then accepted the assignment of Research Scientist at Department of Genetics, University of Delhi South Campus in late 1998. In May, 2001, Pareek was awarded BOYSCAST Fellowship to work with Professor Hans Bohnert at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, USA.

Ashwani has authored and published more than 150 research papers/articles in the research journals. Some of these journals include Nature, Journal of Experimental Botany, Plant Physiology, The Plant Journal, Plant, Cell & Environment etc. He has edited/ co-edited three books like ‘Abiotic Stress Adaptation in Plants: Physiological, Molecular and Genomic Foundation’, ‘Biotechnology in Medicine and Agriculture: Principles and Practices’ and ‘Pre-Field Screening Protocols for Heat Tolerant Mutants in Rice’.

Thematic Area :BIOTECHNOLOGY

Linkedin: Navin Sharma - Member Scientific Board - Microvioma Pvt Ltd | LinkedIn

Thematic Area : BIOECONOMY

Linkedin: Dr Shirshendu Mukherjee - Managing Director - Wadhwani Foundation | LinkedIn

Thematic Area : BIOTECHNOLOGY

Linkedin: Dr. Saumya Ray Chaudhuri

Thematic Area : BIOMANUFACTURING

Linkedin: Ravi Mishra, Ph. D. - Professor - Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research | LinkedIn

Thematic Area : BIOTECHNOLOGY

Linkedin: Bani Jolly - Senior Scientist - Karkinos Healthcare | LinkedIn

Thematic Area : BIOTECHNOLOGY

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-anu-t-singh/

Thematic Area : BIOTECHNOLOGY

Linkedin: Prof. (Dr.) Jasvinder Singh Bhatti - Professor of Molecular Medicine - Central University of Punjab | LinkedIn

Dr. Ajay Kumar Pandey is a Scientist-F at the National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute (NABI), Mohali, Punjab, India. He is a plant molecular biologist with extensive expertise in functional genomics, plant nutrient homeostasis, genome editing, and crop biofortification. His research focuses on improving iron bioavailability in wheat grains through the functional characterization of genes involved in phytic acid biosynthesis, phosphate transport, iron transport, and micronutrient remobilization. 

Dr. Pandey has made significant contributions to understanding iron-deficiency responses, phosphate allocation, inositol pyrophosphate signaling, and transporter-mediated nutrient homeostasis in wheat. His laboratory employs CRISPR-based genome editing, RNA interference, transcriptomics, gene expression profiling, and physiological approaches to develop nutritionally improved wheat germplasm. His work also explores the molecular interplay between iron and phosphate transporters during grain development. He completed his Ph.D. in Biotechnology and Environmental Sciences from Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala. 

He subsequently held postdoctoral positions at Academia Sinica, Taiwan; the University of Alabama, Huntsville, USA; and Iowa State University/USDA-ARS, USA, where he worked on plant–microbe interactions, fungal stress biology, and soybean resistance to Asian soybean rust. Dr. Pandey has led and coordinated several externally funded projects supported by the Department of Biotechnology and the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. 

He has published extensively in leading journals, including Journal of Experimental Botany, BMC Biology, Frontiers in Plant Science, Scientific Reports, Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, and Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions. He has also mentored doctoral students and trainees and actively contributes to institutional research governance, biosafety, and academic activities at NABI. 

Thematic Area : BIOECONOMY

Linkedin: Anushree Malik - Fulbright-Kalam (Climate) Academic and Professional Excellence Scholar - Princeton University | LinkedIn

Thematic Area : BIOMANUFACTURING

Linkedin: Somesh Baranwal, Ph.D. - Associate Professor and Head - Central University of Punjab | LinkedIn

Thematic Area : BIOTECHNOLOGY

Linkedin: Deepak Pareek - Founder - HnyB Tech-Incubations Pvt. Ltd. | LinkedIn

Thematic Area : BIOTECHNOLOGY

Linkedin: Kirti Mishra - Co-Founder - EARTHY n GREEN www.earthyngreen.in | LinkedIn

Thematic Area : BIOTECHNOLOGY

lINKEDIN: Dr. Aradhana Mishra - Principal Scientist - CSIR National Botanical Research Institute Lucknow | LinkedIn

Thematic Area : BIOMANUFACTURING

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/hiteshmalviya/

Thematic Area : BIOMANUFACTURING

Linkedin: Anurag Varshney - Patanjali Research Foundation | LinkedIn

Thematic Area : BIOTECHNOLOGY/BIOECONOMY

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Thematic Area : BIOECONOMY

Linkedin: IIT Kharagpur

Thematic Area : BIOECONOMY

Linkedin: Mrutyunjay Suar, PhD - Bhubaneswar City Knowledge Innovation Cluster Foundation | LinkedIn

Dr. Amit Asthana is working as Professor and Head of the Department of Pharmaceutical Analysis at the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), an autonomous institute of national importance under the aegis of the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Government of India, New Delhi. Before joining the current position, Dr. Asthana served as Associate Professor and founder of the Department of Medical Devices. He established the entire department from scratch and headed it for nearly 5 years. 

Before joining NIPER, he worked for ~10 years as a Senior Principal Scientist, Principal Scientist, and Ramalingaswami Fellow at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CSIR-CCMB), Hyderabad, India. He obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Barkatullah University, India, while working at the Advanced Materials and Processes Research Institute (CSIR-AMPRI).

Dr. Asthana has 26 years of postdoctoral experience in biomaterials, micro/nanotechnology, microfluidic device design, fabrication, and characterization, hot embossing, cleanroom operations, and paper microfluidics. He has worked at Institutes and Universities of International fame, such as the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands; the Institute Curie, France; the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA; Chungnam National University, South Korea; and the University of Queensland, Australia.

Dr. Asthana is a Fellow of the Telangana Academy of Sciences and has received several prestigious fellowships, including SRF (CSIR, India), Curie Fellowship (France), Brainpool Fellowship (KRF, South Korea), and the Ramalingaswami Return Fellowship from DBT, India. He has published extensively in high-impact international journals and conferences and is an inventor on multiple Indian and PCT patents, with five granted and 13 filed. His team has done two technology transfers to Innovolution Pvt Ltd and to BabyQue Pvt Ltd. 

His research interests include biomaterials, drug delivery, micro/nanofabrication, micro/nanofluidics, digital microfluidics, a wide range of microfluidic tools for biological studies, including diagnostic applications using paper microfluidics, and non-conventional methods for fabricating microfluidic devices. Recently, Dr. Asthana received a prestigious “Fast Track Translational” research project of CSIR to develop affordable paper-based pregnancy kits for livestock, which will be introduced in the market soon.  Further, one of his students has recently initiated a startup called AfforDxTx Pvt. Ltds, dedicated to creating diabetic wound healing patches. Dr. Asthana is associated with several start-ups in India working on affordable diagnostic and medical devices as a scientific advisor, including FastSense Diagnostics (Pune, India) and Microfluidic Paper Medical Devices Pvt. Ltd (Hyderabad, India), Theronosis Life Science Pvt. Ltd. (Hyderabad, India), Technical Advisor and Stockholder in Axio Biosolutions, Pvt. Ltd (Bangalore, India).  

Thematic Area : BIOMANUFACTURING

lINKEDIN: linkedin.com/in/anil-kumar-sharma-59517a16/

Thematic Area : BIOMANUFACTURING

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/pawan-k-dhar-bb885b276/

Thematic Area : BIOMANUFACTURING

lINKEDIN: Dr. Ranjeet Ajmani - Chief Executive Officer- Asia - Aegros | LinkedIn

Thematic Area : BIOTECHNOLOGY

Linkedin: Prince Sharma - Professor - Panjab University | LinkedIn

Thematic Area : BIOMANUFACTURING

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/tarun-bhatt-860445181/?originalSubdomain=in

Thematic Area : BIOECONOMY

Thematic Area : BIOTECHNOLOGY