About the Author: ​M. Tofazzal Islam is a Professor and Director of the Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (IBGE) of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University in Bangladesh. He did his MS and Ph D in Applied Biosciences at Hokkaido University in Japan. Dr. Islam received postdoctoral research experiences at Hokkaido University, University of Göttingen, University of Nottingham and West Virginia University under the JSPS, Alexander von Humboldt, Commonwealth, and Fulbright Fellowships, respectively. He published articles in many international journals and book series (>200 peer-reviewed articles, total citation 2,550, h index 26, i10-index 69; RG score 40.72). Dr. Islam was awarded many prizes and medals including Bangladesh Academy of Science Gold Medal in 2011, University Grants Commission Bangladesh Awards in 2004 and 2008, and Best Young Scientist Award 2003 from the JSBBA. Prof. Islam is the Chief Editor of a book series, Bacillus and Agrobiotechnology publishes by Springer. He is an elected Fellow of Bangladesh Academy of Science. His research interests include genomics, genome editing, plant probiotics and novel biologicals, and bioactive natural products.
Dr. Pankaj Bhowmik graduated with honors from Bangladesh Agricultural University and joined at the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute as a Scientific Officer. He received his Ph.D. in Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology from Kagawa University, Japan. Following JSPS, Killam and NSERC post-doctoral training at the National Agricultural Research Center in Hokkaido, University of Alberta and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Dr. Bhowmik joined the National Research Council of Canada in Saskatoon, where he is now a Research Officer and a member of the Cell Technologies team. Dr. Bhowmik with over 15 years of experience specializes in plant physiology, metabolomics, tissue culture, plant transformation, and gene editing. Since 2009 after joining NRC, he has been working on mesophyll protoplast and microspore culture, microspore transformation and plant regeneration of canola and wheat combining doubled haploidy and genetic engineering tools. Dr. Bhowmik is in the process of developing a crop-agnostic CRISPR based gene editing platform that can be deployed for the improvement of any high-value crops such as cereals, oilseeds, pulse crops and greenhouse vegetables. He is the project lead for the NRC's pulse quality improvement project under the Ag-Food initiative supporting Protein Industry Canada innovation supercluster.
Kutubuddin A. Molla is a faculty scientist in agricultural biotechnology at the ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, India. He undertook his university studies at the University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India, and holds MSc and Ph.D. degrees in Botany. He is a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright fellowship. Dr. Molla has done his post-doctoral research at the Pennsylvania State University, USA, for two years. Dr. Molla is interested in precise genome editing in crop plants and uses CRISPR/Cas-base editors and 'homology-directed repair' (HDR) methods for crop improvement. Dr. Molla is an expert in plant genetic engineering, transgenic technology, and genome editing. Dr. Molla bagged many prestigious awards, including the Young Scientist Award by Indian Science Congress Association, Jawaharlal Nehru best Ph.D. thesis award by Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Early Career Research Award by Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India. He is also the recipient of the AAAS/Science Program for Excellence in Science from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Washington D.C. Dr. Molla published his research in many international peer-reviewed journals, including Trends in Biotechnology, Molecular Plant Pathology, Theoretical and Applied Genetics, Plant Science, BMC Plant Biology, Scientific Reports, GM crops & food, and Environmental and Experimental Botany.