Fellowships/Awards :

1. NSFC-International Young Scientists Fund from Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), (2020-2021).
2. ORISE-Postdoctoral Fellowship from USDA-ARS at Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA (2019-2021, not availed).
3. CAS-Postdoctoral Fellowship from Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China (2015-2020).
4. GRC & GRS Travel Funding to attend Gordon Research Conference (GRC) in Italy (2017, not availed).
5. Young Scientist Award nomination at 3rd International Plant Physiology Conference (IPPC), India (2015).
6. FWO-Ph.D. Fellowship from Flanders Science Foundation (FWO), Belgium (2010-2014).
7. Senior Research Fellowship from Department of Biotechnology (DBT), India (2008-2010).
8. Certificate of Merit from H.P. Board of School Education Dharamshala, H.P., India (1999).

Key Training Courses :

• “EMBL Advanced Course on Whole Transcriptome Data Analysis” at European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg, Germany, (23rd-25th June 2015).
• “Statistical Analysis of Omics Data” at Wageningen University, Netherlands (13th-17th Dec. 2010).
• “Analysis of Public Microarray Data using Genevestigator” at VIB Ghent, Belgium (6th-9th Nov. 2012).
• “Basic Principles of Statistics” at University of Antwerp, Belgium, (June-July 2012).

Editorial Roles

• Feature Editor, Molecular Plant (Cell Press)
• Associate Editor, Plant-Environment and Interactions (Wiley)
• Associate Editor, BMC Plant Biology (BMC-Springer Nature)
• Associate Editor, CABI Agriculture and Bioscience (BMC-Springer Nature)
• Associate Editor, Plant Physiology Reports, formerly known as Indian Journal of Plant Physiology (Springer)
• Review Editor, Frontiers in Plant Science.
• Review Editor, Frontiers in Genetics.

Science Outreach

• Plantae Fellow 2019 (American Society of Plant Biology)
• eLife Ambassador 2019

• Total Papers: 37 (Research: 29, Review: 8)
• Book Chapters: 3
• First / #Co-first articles: 10
• *Corresponding author articles: 7
• Total Impact Factor (IF): 195; Average IF: 6.72
• Citations: 1689; H index: 20
• High impact papers published in journals viz. Trends in Plant Science (IF 18.31), Nature Communications (IF 14.92), Biotechnology Advances (IF 14.23), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA (IF 11.21), Global Change Biology (IF 10.86), Journal of Hazardous Materials (IF 10.59), New Phytologist (IF 10.15), Environmental Pollution (IF 8.07), Journal of Experimental Botany (IF 6.99), Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety (IF 6.29), etc.
• Google Scholar: tinyurl.com/3dhedsff

Research Articles

• Wang J, Chen B, Ali S……Sederoff W, Zinta G, Sederoff RR, Li Y, Zhang Q (2022) Epigenetic modification associated with climate regulates betulin biosynthesis in birch. Journal of Forestry Research DOI: 10.1007/s11676-021-01424-7. (IF 2.15)
• He L, Zhao C, Zhang Q, Zinta G, Wang D, Lozano-Durán R, Zhu J-K (2021) A pathway conversion enables a double-lock mechanism to maintain DNA methylation and genome stability. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS-USA) DOI:10.1073/pnas.2107320118. (IF 11.21)
• AbdElgawad H#, Schoenaers S#, Zinta G#*, Hassan YM, Abdel-Mawgoud M, Alkhalifah DHM, Hozzein WN, Asard H and Abuelsoud W (2021) Soil arsenic toxicity differentially impacts C3 (barley) and C4 (maize) crops under future climate atmospheric CO2. Journal of Hazardous Materials 414:125331. (IF 10.59)
• AbdElgawad H#, Zinta G#*, Abuelsoud W#, Hassan YM, Alkhalifah DHM, Hozzein WN, Zrieq R, Beemster GT and Schoenaers S (2021) An actinomycete strain of Nocardiopsis lucentensis reduces arsenic toxicity in barley and maize. Journal of Hazardous Materials 417:126055. (IF 10.59)
• Kiran A, Sharma P, Awasthi R, Nayyar H, Seth R, Chandel SS, Siddique KH, Zinta G and Sharma KD (2021) Disruption of carbohydrate and proline metabolism in anthers under low temperature causes pollen sterility in chickpea. Environmental and Experimental Botany 188:104500. (IF 5.55)
• Verma V, Zinta G and Kanwar K (2021) Optimization of efficient direct organogenesis protocol for Punica granatum L. cv. Kandhari Kabuli from mature leaf explants. In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology-Plant 57:48-59. (IF 2.25)
• AbdElgawad H, Abuelsoud W, Madany MM, Selim S, Zinta G, Mousa AS and Hozzein WN (2020) Actinomycetes enrich soil rhizosphere and improve seed quality as well as productivity of legumes by boosting nitrogen availability and metabolism. Biomolecules 10:1675. (IF 4.88)
• AbdElgawad H#, Zinta G#, Hamed BA, Selim S, Beemster G, Hozzein WN, Wadaan MA, Asard H and Abuelsoud W (2020) Maize roots and shoots show distinct profiles of oxidative stress and antioxidant defense under heavy metal toxicity. Environmental Pollution 258:113705. (IF 8.07)
• Bhaskarla V#, Zinta G#, Ford R, Jain M, Varshney RK and Mantri N (2020) Comparative root transcriptomics provide insights into drought adaptation strategies in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). International Journal of Molecular Sciences 21:1781. (IF 5.92)
• Madany MM, Zinta G, Abuelsoud W, Hozzein WN, Selim S, Asard H and Abd Elgawad H (2020) Hormonal seed-priming improves tomato resistance against broomrape infection. Journal of Plant Physiology 250:153184. (IF 3.55)
• Yang X, Liu Y, Zhang H, Wang J, Zinta G, Xie S, Zhu W and Nie W-F (2020) Genome-wide identification of circular RNAs in response to low-temperature stress in tomato leaves. Frontiers in Genetics 11:1336. (IF 4.59)
• Zinta G*, AbdElgawad H, Peshev D, Weedon JT, Van den Ende W, Nijs I, Janssens IA, Beemster GT and Asard H (2018) Dynamics of metabolic responses to periods of combined heat and drought in Arabidopsis thaliana under ambient and elevated atmospheric CO2. Journal of Experimental Botany 69:2159-2170. (IF 6.99)
• He L, Wu W, Zinta G, Yang L, Wang D, Liu R, Zhang H, Zheng Z, Huang H, Zhang Q and Zhu J-K (2018) A naturally occurring epiallele associates with leaf senescence and local climate adaptation in Arabidopsis accessions. Nature Communications 9:1-11. (IF 14.92)
• Hamed SM, Zinta G, Klöck G, Asard H, Selim S and AbdElgawad H (2017) Zinc-induced differential oxidative stress and antioxidant responses in Chlorella sorokiniana and Scenedesmus acuminatus. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 140:256-263. (IF 6.29)
• AbdElgawad H#, Zinta G#, Hegab MM, Pandey R, Asard H and Abuelsoud W (2016) High salinity induces different oxidative stress and antioxidant responses in maize seedlings organs. Frontiers in Plant Science 7:276. (IF 5.75)
• Hamad I, AbdElgawad H, Al Jaouni S, Zinta G, Asard H, Hassan S, Hegab M, Hagagy N and Selim S (2015) Metabolic analysis of various date palm fruit (Phoenix dactylifera L.) cultivars from Saudi Arabia to assess their nutritional quality. Molecules 20:13620-13641. (IF 4.41)
• Sinha AK, AbdElgawad H, Zinta G, Dasan AF, Rasoloniriana R, Asard H, Blust R and De Boeck G (2015) Nutritional status as the key modulator of antioxidant responses induced by high environmental ammonia and salinity stress in European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax). PloS One 10:e0135091. (IF 3.24)
• Sinha AK, Zinta G, AbdElgawad H, Asard H, Blust R and De Boeck G (2015) High environmental ammonia elicits differential oxidative stress and antioxidant responses in five different organs of a model estuarine teleost (Dicentrarchus labrax). Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part C: Toxicology & Pharmacology 174:21-31. (IF 3.23)
• Pandey R, Dubey KK, Ahmad A, Nilofar R, Verma R, Jain V, Zinta G and Kumar V (2015) Elevated CO2 improves growth and phosphorus utilization efficiency in cereal species under sub-optimal phosphorus supply. Journal of Plant Nutrition 38:1196-1217. (IF 1.71)
• AbdElgawad H, De Vos D, Zinta G, Domagalska MA, Beemster GT and Asard H (2015) Grassland species differentially regulate proline concentrations under future climate conditions: an integrated biochemical and modelling approach. New Phytologist 208:354-369. (IF 10.15)
• AbdElgawad H, Peshev D, Zinta G, Van den Ende W, Janssens IA and Asard H (2014) Climate extreme effects on the chemical composition of temperate grassland species under ambient and elevated CO2: a comparison of fructan and non-fructan accumulators. PLoS One 9:e92044. (IF 3.24)
• Zinta G, AbdElgawad H, Domagalska MA, Vergauwen L, Knapen D, Nijs I, Janssens IA, Beemster GT and Asard H (2014) Physiological, biochemical, and genome‐wide transcriptional analysis reveals that elevated CO2 mitigates the impact of combined heatwave and drought stress in Arabidopsis thaliana at multiple organizational levels. Global Change Biology 20:3670-3685. (IF 10.86)
• Sinha AK, AbdElgawad H, Giblen T, Zinta G, De Rop M, Asard H, Blust R and De Boeck G (2014) Anti-oxidative defences are modulated differentially in three freshwater teleosts in response to ammonia-induced oxidative stress. PLoS One 9:e95319. (IF 3.24)
• El-Soud WA, Hegab MM, AbdElgawad H, Zinta G and Asard H (2013) Ability of ellagic acid to alleviate osmotic stress on chickpea seedlings. Plant Physiology and Biochemistry 71:173-183. (IF 4.27)
• Hegab M, Abdelgawad H, Abdelhamed M, Hammouda O, Pandey R, Kumar V and Zinta G (2013) Effects of tricin isolated from jungle rice (Echinochloa colona L.) on amylase activity and oxidative stress in wild oat (Avena fatua L.). Allelopathy Journal 31:345. (IF 0.96)
• Sharma A, Zinta G, Rana S and Shirko P (2010) Molecular identification of sex in Hippophae rhamnoides L. using isozyme and RAPD markers. Forestry Studies in China 12:62-66. (IF NA)
• Suhasini H, Bhardwaj S, Rattan R, Kanwar K and Zinta G (2010) Inference on coat protein evolution of Lily Symptomless Carlavirus in India and abroad based on motifs study and phylogenetic analysis. Journal of Proteomics Bioinformatics 3:204-211. (IF NA)
• Shirkot P, Bhuria M and Zinta G (2009) Identification of gender in dioecious Hippophae salicifolia using isozyme as sex markers. Indian Journal of Forestry 32:231-237. (IF NA)
• Patial H, Shirkot P, Bhalla R and Zinta G (2007) Assessment of genetic variability in Carnation (Dianthus Caryophyllus Linn.) using isozymes as molecular markers. Journal of Ornamental Horticulture 10:78-84. (IF NA)

Review Articles

• Gautam T, Dutta M, Jaiswal V, Zinta G, Gahlaut V and Kumar S (2022) Emerging roles of SWEET sugar transporters in plant development and abiotic stress responses. Cells. (IF 6.60)
• Chourasia NK, More S, Kumar A, Kumar D, Singh B, Bhardwaj V, Kumar A, Das SK, Singh RK, Zinta G*, Tiwari RK, Lal MK. (2022) Salinity tolerance mechanisms in underground vegetable crops – A review. Planta (Accepted). (IF 4.12)
• Tiwari RK, Lal MK, Kumar R, Chourasia KN, Naga KC, Kumar D, Das SK and Zinta G* (2021) Mechanistic insights on melatonin‐mediated drought stress mitigation in plants. Physiologia Plantarum 172:1212-1226. (IF 4.50)
• Gahlaut V, Zinta G, Jaiswal V and Kumar S (2020) Quantitative epigenetics: a new avenue for crop improvement. Epigenomes 4:25. (IF NA)
• Srivastava AK, Lu Y, Zinta G, Lang Z and Zhu J-K (2018) UTR-dependent control of gene expression in plants. Trends in Plant Science 23:248-259. (IF 18.31)
• Zinta G*, Khan A, AbdElgawad H, Verma V and Srivastava AK (2016) Unveiling the redox control of plant reproductive development during abiotic stress. Frontiers in Plant Science 7:700. (IF 5.75)
• AbdElgawad H, Zinta G#, Beemster GT, Janssens IA and Asard H (2016) Future climate CO2 levels mitigate stress impact on plants: increased defense or decreased challenge? Frontiers in Plant Science 7:556. (IF 5.75)
• Pandey R, Zinta G, AbdElgawad H, Ahmad A, Jain V and Janssens IA (2015) Physiological and molecular alterations in plants exposed to high [CO2] under phosphorus stress. Biotechnology Advances 33:303-316. (IF 14.23)

Book Chapters/Protocols

• Kundu P, Goel K, Zinta G* (2022) Nutritional imbalance in plants under rising atmospheric CO2, in Plant Nutrition and Food Security in the Era of Climate Change pp 513-536, Academic Press.
• Miki D#, Zinta G#, Zhang W, Peng F, Feng Z and Zhu J-K (2021) CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing toolbox for Arabidopsis thaliana, in Arabidopsis Protocols pp 121-146, Springer.
• Khan A and Zinta G* (2016) Drought stress and chromatin: an epigenetic perspective, in Drought Stress Tolerance in Plants, Vol 2 pp 571-586, Springer.

Oral Presentations/Invited Speaker

• Gaurav Zinta ‘An integrative view on plant responses to changing climate’ at Biomics Webinar, organized by Biomics India (20th Feb 2021).
• Gaurav Zinta “Mechanistic insights on plant responses to global climate change by using multi-scale analyses” at International Virtual Conference on Frontiers in Biological Research, organized by Department of Botany, School of Biological Sciences St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu and The Biomics, Bengaluru (15th-21st Feb 2021).
• Gaurav Zinta ‘Multi-scale analysis to understand plant responses to global climate change’ at Prospects of Plant Physiology for Climate Proofing Agriculture, International Plant Physiology Virtual Conference-2020, organized by Indian Society of Plant Physiology, New Delhi, India (6th-7th December 2020).
• Gaurav Zinta ‘Mechanistic insights into plant response to global climate change’ at an International virtual seminar on Technologies for Environmental Sustainability and Smart Agriculture-2020, organized by Jaypee University of Information Technology, Waknaghat, India (18th September 2020).
• Gaurav Zinta ‘Systems biology perspective on climate change impact on plants’ at International Webinar on Emerging Trends in Biotechnology: Current and Future Challenges in Biotechnology Research, organized by Mizoram University, Aizawl, Mizoram, India on 24th June 2020.
• Gaurav Zinta “Physiological, metabolic, and transcriptional analysis of Arabidopsis to gain insight into plant responses to climate extremes” at 3rd International Plant Physiology Conference (IPPC), New Delhi (11th-14th Dec 2015).
• Gaurav Zinta “Repeated selection under heat stress improves stress tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana” at 19th National Symposium on Applied Biological Sciences, Gembloux, Belgium (7th Feb 2014).
• Gaurav Zinta “Biochemical and molecular responses of Arabidopsis thaliana to a combination of heatwave and drought under elevated CO2” at 7th symposium of the Belgian Plant Biotech Association, Brussels, Belgium (29th Nov 2013).

Poster Presentations

• Gaurav Zinta, Hamada AbdElgawad, Marios N Markakis, Chris Volschenk, Katrien Sprangers, Ivan A Janssens, Han Asard, Gerrit TS Beemster “Transgenerational induction of heat tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana” in the ‘International Conference for Arabidopsis Research’ at Turku, Finland (25th-29th June 2018).
• Amit Kumar Sinha, Marios N Nektaris, Gaurav Zinta, Ajay A Kumar, Gerrit TS Beemster, Ronny Blust, Gudrun De Boeck “Interactive effects of salinity and ammonia on marine fish: insights from genome-wide transcriptional analysis” in the “Society of Experimental Biology Conference” at Gothenburg, Sweden (3rd–6th July 2017).
• Hamada AbdElgawad, Gaurav Zinta, Marios Nektarios Markakis, Viktoriya Avramova, Gerrit T.S. Beemster, Han Asard “Growth and genome-wide transcriptional analysis reveal that elevated CO2 mitigates the impact of drought stress in Arabidopsis thaliana” in the ‘12th International Conference on Reactive Oxygen and Nitrogen Species in Plants: from model systems to field’ at Palazzo della Gran Guardia, Verona, Italy (24th-26th June 2015).
• Amit Kumar Sinha, Hamada AbdElgawad, Gaurav Zinta, Han Asard, Ronny Blust, Gudrun De Boeck “Nutritional status as the key modulator of antioxidant responses induced by salinity stress and high ammonia in European sea bass” in the annual meeting of Society of Experimental Biology (SEB), Prague, 2015 (30th June-3rd July 2015).
• Hamada AbdElgawad, Gaurav Zinta, Viktoriya Avramova, Gerrit T.S. Beemster, Han Asard “Growth and genome-wide transcriptional analysis reveal that elevated CO2 mitigates the impact of drought stress in Arabidopsis thaliana” in the conference ‘Recent progress in drought tolerance: from genetics to modelling’ at Montpellier, France (8th-9th June 2015).
• Hamada AbdElgawad, Gaurav Zinta, M. N. Markakis, V. Avramova, G.T.S. Beemster, H. Asard. “Elevated CO2 mitigates drought and temperature-induced oxidative stress differently in grasses and legumes” in the conference ‘Agriculture and Climate Change: Adapting Crops to Increased Uncertainty’ at Amsterdam, Netherlands (15th-17th Feb 2015).
• Hamada AbdElgawad, Dirk De Vos, Gaurav Zinta, Malgorzata A. Domagalska, Gerrit T.S. Beemster, Han Asard. “Unraveling the effects of future climate conditions on proline metabolism in grassland species: An integrated biochemical and modeling approach” in the ‘19th National Symposium on Applied Biological Sciences’ at Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (30th Jan 2015).
• Gaurav Zinta, Hamada AbdElgawad, Ivan A. Janssens, Gerrit T.S. Beemster, Han Asard. “Transgenerational effects of heat stress in Arabidopsis thaliana: A multilevel analysis” in the 211th meeting ‘Epigenetics and Stem Cell Biology’ jointly organized by Belgian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BMB) with Belgian Society of Cell and Developmental Biology at University of Antwerp, Belgium (6th-7th Nov 2014).
• Gaurav Zinta, Hamada AbdElgawad, Marios Nektarios Markakis, Ivan A. Janssens, Gerrit T.S. Beemster, Han Asard. “Multilevel analysis revealed that repeated selection under heat stress improves heat tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana” in the ‘Plant Biology Europe FESPB/EPSO Congress’ at Dublin, Ireland (22nd-26th June 2014).
• Hamada AbdElgawad, Gaurav Zinta, Marios N. Markakis, Malgorzata A. Domagalska, Gerrit T.S. Beemster, Han Asard. “Elevated CO2 mitigates the impact of drought on Arabidopsis thaliana: Growth and genome-wide analyses” in the ‘Plant Biology Europe FESPB/EPSO Congress at Dublin, Ireland (22nd-26th June 2014).
• Hamada AbdElgawad, Gaurav Zinta, Han Asard. “Elevated CO2 reduced the impact of drought stress in Arabidopsis thaliana” in the ‘19th National Symposium on Applied Biological Sciences’ at Gembloux, Belgium (7th Feb 2014).
• Gaurav Zinta, Hamada AbdElgawad, Malgorzata A. Domagalska, Lucia Vergauwen, Ivan Nijs, Gerrit T.S. Beemster, Han Asard, Ivan A. Janssens. “Biochemical and molecular responses of Arabidopsis thaliana to a combination of heatwave and drought under elevated CO2” in the ‘7th symposium of the Belgian Plant Biotech Association’ at Brussels, Belgium (29th Nov 2013).
• Hamada AbdElgawad, Gaurav Zinta, Han Asard. “Elevated CO2 reduced the impact of drought stress in Arabidopsis thaliana” in the ‘7th symposium of the Belgian Plant Biotech Association’ at Brussels, Belgium (29th Nov 2013).
• Gaurav Zinta, Hamada AbdElgawad, Malgorzata A. Domagalska, Lucia Vergauwen, Ivan Nijs, Gerrit T.S. Beemster, Han Asard, Ivan A. Janssens. “Elevated CO2 mitigates the impact of a combination of heatwave and drought in Arabidopsis thaliana” in the ‘11th International POG Conference Reactive Oxygen and Nitrogen Species in Plants’ at Warsaw, Poland (17th-19th July 2013).
• Gaurav Zinta, S. K. Singh, Poonam Shirkot, S.V. Bhardwaj. "Genomic diversity of Asparagus adscendens Roxb. in western Himalayas, Himachal Pradesh” in the national symposium on ‘New Biology in Agriculture’ at Punjab University Chandigarh, India (7th-8th Nov 2008).

Looking forward to building a scientific team of highly motivated and innovative researchers. If you have your own independent Ph.D./PostDoc fellowship or want to explore such options — you are welcome to get in touch with me via email.

Research Group: (Dr. Gaurav Zinta, Komal Goel, Pravesh Kundu, Madhushree Dutta, Vidhi Raturi, Roshankumar Jadhav, Ravi Kumar, Paras Sharma, Sanjeet Kumar, and Narender Kumar)

• Komal Goel is a Ph.D. research scholar. She has qualified CSIR-NET-JRF 2019 with an All India Rank (AIR) of 83. She did her schooling at St. John’s School, Faridabad, Haryana. She did B.Sc. Botany from the University of Delhi, and M.Sc. in Botany from Dolphin Institute of Biomedical & Natural Sciences, Dehradun. Her dissertation work was on "Phytochemical and antioxidant activities of citrus fruit juices." Also, she worked as a trainee for three months in the project entitled "Propagation and management of bamboo" under the Green Skill Development Program of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, GOI. The key area of her research interest includes climate change biology, plant stress physiology and plant reproductive biology. In her Ph.D., she will explore the thermosensitivity of Amaranthaceae species by implementing microscopic, transcriptomics and genome editing tools. Her hobbies include trekking, reading, cooking, dancing, and exploring unexplored areas.
• Pravesh Kundu is a Ph.D. research scholar. She has qualified CSIR-UGC-NET-JRF in 2019 with an All India Rank (AIR) of 94, and qualified other national exams (GATE and CUCET) as well. She did her schooling at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Kaithal, Haryana. She did her B.Sc. and B.Ed. at Kurukshetra University, Haryana. She did her M.Sc. Botany from Punjabi University, Patiala. Her dissertation work was on "Taxonomic study on hyphomycetes of Chunni Kalan (Punjab)." The key areas of her research interest include plant stress physiology and plant molecular biology. In her Ph.D., she will work on the nutritional quality of Amaranthaceae species and will use approaches from metabolomics, transcriptomics and genome editing. Her hobbies are reading, cooking and trekking.
• Madhushree Dutta is a Ph.D. research scholar and holds a UGC-JRF fellowship and qualified other national exams (GATE and CUCET) as well. She earned M.Sc. Botany (Hons.) from the University of Calcutta with specialization in plant physiology, biochemistry and molecular biology. Her M.Sc. dissertation was on “Regulation of carbohydrate metabolism by arsenic in two rice cultivars and their possible alteration by phosphate.” After M.Sc., she worked as a Project JRF for two years in a UGC sponsored project, “Utilization of brassica seed meal as a bioherbicide for weed management in wheat.” So far, she has published one research article and a review article. Madhushree received the Honorable Dr. Parimal Kumar Roy Memorial Award and Dr. Ramendra Krishna Sarkar Memorial Award for her academic records. The key areas of research interest include plant stress physiology, genomics, and climate change biology. In her Ph.D., she will dissect the molecular mechanisms underlying thermal responses in potato. During her leisure hours, she devotes time to educate the upcoming aspirants preparing for various life science exams by incorporating smart strategies into the education system and making learning more exciting and fun. She also loves to write and currently working on a memoir.
• Vidhi Raturi is a Ph.D. research scholar and has qualified Joint CSIR-UGC NET JRF 2019 with an All-India Rank (AIR) of 83 and GATE-XL in 2020. She did her schooling at Saraswati Vidya Mandir Inter College, Avas-Vikas, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand. She did her M.Sc. in Botany from Pt. LMS Govt. PG College, Rishikesh (affiliated to HNB Garhwal University, Srinagar Garhwal), Uttarakhand. Her dissertation work was on “Jatropha curcas: A Future Sustainable Fuel”. Also, she has done a 7-week course on "Understanding Plant I- What a Plant Knows" & a 4-week course on "Understanding Plants II- Fundamentals of Plant Biology", delivered by Prof. Daniel Chamovitz of Tel Aviv University, Israel. Vidhi has received the Scholarship for Higher Education (SHE) component under INSPIRE SCHEME of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) for 5 years during her graduation and post-graduation for her excellent academic records. The key areas of her research interest include plant signaling & behavior, sensory plant biology, molecular plant stress biology and climate change biology. In her Ph.D., she will be elucidating high ambient temperature sensing and signaling network in Arabidopsis thaliana. Also, she will dissect the adaptive mechanisms underlying recurrent heat stress exposure (heat stress memory). In her spare time, she enjoys doing photography, watching cricket, reading books, and traveling. Apart from this, she likes to listen to folk music from different regions of India and explore various cultures and traditions of India.
• Roshankumar Jadhav is a Project Associate in the lab of Dr. Gaurav Zinta at CSIR-IHBT, Palampur, H.P. Roshan has qualified ICAR-NET 2019 in Agriculture Biotechnology. Also, Roshan qualified DBT-JNU-CEEEB (Jawaharlal Nehru University Combined Entrance Examination for Biotechnology) with AllIndia Rank-15 and ICAR-AIEEA (All India Entrance Examination for Admission) with All India Rank-66 in Plant Biotechnology subject. Roshan completed his M.Sc. in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from G.B Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand. His dissertation work entitled “Molecular cloning, expression and characterization of methionine-rich prolamin seed storage protein gene (FimP2) of finger millet (Eleusine coracana)” Patent File No. 201811033469. He did his B.Sc. honors from Vilasrao Deshmukh College of Agriculture Biotechnology, Latur under Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Agricultural University (VNMAU), Parbhani, Maharashtra. After M.Sc., he worked on the characterization of rice sucrose transporter as a JRF and SRF at ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research (IIRR), Hyderabad in the “Aerobic Rice Project”. In September 2020, he joined as a Project Associate-II at DBT-National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), and worked on the project focusing on large-scale phenotyping of rice landraces for photosynthesis and related traits. His major research interests are Molecular Biology, Plant Physiology, Plant Stress Physiology. He is also interested in protein engineering and bioinformatics. He likes to travel, play cricket, listen to music, and surf the internet in his leisure time.
• Ravi Kumar is pursuing Ph.D. with Dr. Vishal Acharya in Functional Genomics and Complex Systems Lab at CSIR-IHBT, Palampur, H.P. Also, he is working as a Project Associate in the lab of Dr. Gaurav Zinta and contributing to the next-generation sequencing data analysis. Ravi did his M.Sc. in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics from the Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Dharamshala, with a specialization in Computational Systems Biology. His M.Sc. dissertation was “Modelling cell cycle regulation and synchronize oscillation in NF-kB signaling”. Ravi did his graduation from Govt. College Palampur (affiliated to Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla). Previously, he worked as a Project Associate in the project entitled “Development of high-throughput genotyping platform for next-generation plant breeding in tea” at CSIR-IHBT. He also worked as a Project fellow for two years in a CSIR sponsored project, “Genomics and Informatics Solution for Integrating Biology (GENESIS)” at CSIR- Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB). So far, he has published three research articles in SCI journals and two book chapters. The key areas of his research interest include plant stress signaling, network biology, next-generation sequencing, and big data analysis. For his Ph.D., he is developing machine and deep learning algorithms and their application in plant-pathogen interactions. His hobbies include trekking, playing cricket, reading.
• Paras Sharma is a Research Trainee in the lab of Dr. Gaurav Zinta at CSIR-IHBT, Palampur, H.P. Paras did B.Sc. Horticulture from VCSG Uttarakhand University of Horticultural and Forestry, Bharsar, Pauri Uttarakhand. During the final year of his bachelor’s, he worked as a research intern for three months at ICAR-Central Potato Research Institute (CPRI), Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. He worked on the molecular characterization of a potato heat-tolerant somatic hybrid variety by performing SSR analysis, tissue culture, and aeroponics. His major research interests are plant breeding, molecular breeding, plant physiology, plant stress physiology. He is also interested in bioinformatics. He likes to travel, trek, photograph, listen to music, play football and basketball.
• Sanjeet Kumar (Lab Technician)
• Narender Kumar (Lab Assistant)