CRISPR Crops The Future of Food Security

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, 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, 21 ^st  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 Sultan Habibullah Khan  received his PhD from the University of Manchester-England in the field of Plant Sciences in 2004. Since his graduation from UK, Dr Khan has been working as a faculty at the University of Agriculture-Faisalabad (UAF). His postdoctoral experience also includes teaching and research at the University of California-Berkeley and Sultan Qaboos University-Oman. Currently, he is working as the Deputy Chief of Party at the US-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Agriculture and Food Security (CAS-AFS) and a Tenured Associate Professor of Plant Molecular Sciences at the Centre of Agricultural Biochemistry and Biotechnology (CABB), UAF. For the last over 20 years, Dr Khan has been engaged in the fields of plant biotechnology, breeding, genetics and molecular biology. Dr Khan is recipient of national/international scholarships, Research Productivity Award (2014)and over 40 international publications with impact factor.

Dr Zulqurnain Khan  is currently working as Assistant Professor in the Institute of Plant Breeding and Biotechnology (IPBB), Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Agriculture, Multan (MNSUAM), Pakistan. Dr Khan earned his PhD in Biotechnology from University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (UAF), Pakistan and his research focuses on CRISPR/Cas9 system for development of resistance against begomoviruses using model plants. He has published one book chapter, three review articles, and three research articles in international peer reviewed journals including Journal of Biomedical Sciences, Plant Molecular Biology Reporter and International Journal of Agriculture and Biology. Dr Khan also worked as visiting researcher with group of Professor Caixia Gao at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (IGDB), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, China.