Plant Signaling Molecules

Dr. M. Iqbal R. Khan's current research interests are the physiological and molecular mechanisms involved in flooding tolerance and looking for suitable germplasm donors for breeding purpose. Working on the metabolism of plants under different abiotic stresses, Dr. Khan has found a significant role of phytohormones in the regulation of plant growth and development and have suggested that phytohormones play an important in controlling stress responses and interacts in coordination with each other for defense signal networking to fine tune tolerance mechanisms. Dr. Khan has published more than 35 journal articles, 07 book chapters and has edited two books. He has received various research fellowships including UGC-MANF, DBT-RA, SERB-DST Young scientist, SERB-NPDF and IRRI-PDF. He has been recognized as Young Scientist of the Year, receiving the award from Scientific and Environmental Research Institute, India and Junior Scientist of the Year, receiving the award from National Environmental Science Academy New Delhi, India. He has been guest editor of "Ethylene: A key regulatory molecule in plants" in Frontiers in Plant Science.

Dr. Palakolanu Sudhakar Reddy is a Scientist (DST-INSPIRE faculty fellow) working under the Cell, Molecular biology and Genetic engineering theme at ICRISAT. He has completed his PhD from International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi, where he worked on "Identification and characterization of the Heat Shock Proteins from Pennisetum glaucum". He was an integral part of the team for developing high-throughput, low-cost methodologies for the isolation of promoters and genes, sequencing for phage DNA and identification of stable reference genes for qPCR studies. He has been awarded with several International and National awards, including Leibniz-DAAD Postdoctoral Fellowship from German Academic Exchange Service, Germany, Young Scientist and INSPIRE Faculty Awards from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India. He is associate fellow of Andhra Pradesh Akademi of Sciences from 2015. He has worked in Germany and Philippines on genomics and molecular aspects of abiotic stress tolerance and genome editing. He has published more than 32 research articles in international peer reviewed journals and also has 5 book chapters and a patent to his credit. He is a reviewer of several reputed international journals, including Frontiers in plant science, Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, BMC Genomics, Environmental and Experimental Botany, Gene and PLoS ONE. Area of expertise: Functional genomics, Gene expression, Molecular biology and Genome editing

Antonio Ferrante holds a PhD in advanced technologies in horticultural science from the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa Italy. He was a visiting researcher at the University California, Davis, and a visiting teaching professor with ERASMUS program in Cardiff University (2015) and Almeria University (2017) and has been a member of the scientific committee of several international conferences. He has authored more than 200 international publications in peer-reviewed journals.

Prof. Nafees A. Khan is a distinguished Professor of Plant Physiology in the Department of Botany at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). Holding both a PhD and a DSc from AMU, he is internationally renowned for his pioneering research on abiotic stress tolerance in plants, phytohormone signaling, and sustainable agricultural practices. A Highly Cited Researcher (Clarivate Analytics, 2019-23), he has received prestigious awards, including the UGC-Research and Mid-Career Awards, the Teaching Excellence Award, and the Research Excellence Citation Award 2023 (Clarivate Analytics). He is also a fellow of several esteemed academies, including the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Linnean Society of London, the Indian Botanical Society, and the Indian Society for Plant Physiology. His groundbreaking research integrates nutrient-use efficiency with stress resistance mechanisms, making substantial contributions to the advancement of global agricultural sustainability.