Reprogramming the Genome: CRISPR-Cas-based Human Disease Therapy

Prof. Vijai Singh is currently serving as Head of the Department of Biosciences, School of Science and Dean (Research & Innovation) at Indrashil University, Rajpur, Mehsana, India. Prior to this, he held the position of Associate Professor in the same department at Indrashil University. He has also served as Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology at the Institute of Advanced Research, Gandhinagar, and in the Department of Biotechnology at the Invertis University, Bareilly, India. Earlier of his career, Prof. Singh worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Synthetic Biology Group at the Institute of Systems and Synthetic Biology, Paris, France and at the School of Energy & Chemical Engineering at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan, South Korea. He earned his Ph.D. in Biotechnology in 2009 from the ICAR-National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources, Uttar Pradesh Technical University, Lucknow, India. His doctoral research focused on the development of molecular and immunoassays for the diagnosis of Aeromonas hydrophila. Prof. Singh’s research interests lies in the design and construction of novel biosynthetic pathways for production of medically and industrially important biomolecules. His laboratory is also actively engaged in developing CRISPR-Cas systems for gene knock out, knock in, gene regulation and diagnostic. With over 15 years of research and teaching experience, his areas of expertise include synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, bioinformatics, microbiology, and industrial microbiology. He has an extensive academic record, with over 110 articles, 89 book chapters, 26 books and 3 patents to his credits. Prof. Singh has received number of prestigious awards, including the Bioclues Innovation, Research and Development Award (2023) from the BIOCLUES Society, the Vice Chancellor's Best Research Award (2023) from Indrashil University, and the Agathiyar Chemical Biology Award (2023) from the Society of Chemical and Synthetic Biology. At Indrashil University, he currently serves as chairman of the Board of Study, and is a member of the Academic Council of Indrashil University. He also holds the position of the Member Secretary of the Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBSC) at the university. Dr. Singh is actively involved in national and international scientific advisory roles.

• 1. An introduction to CRISPR-Cas systems for reprogramming of the genome of mammalian cells2. CRISPR-Cas systems for genome editing of mammalian cells3. Genome-wide detection and analysis of CRISPR-Cas off-targets4. CRISPR-based diagnostics for detection of pathogens5. Creating cell lines for mimicking diseases6. Modulating Cas9 activity for precision gene editing7. Crispr-Cas9 in cancer therapeutics8. CRISPR-Cas9 for treating heredity diseases9. CRISPR-Cas9 based genome editing for defective gene correction in humans and other mammals10. Recent advances in stem cells & gene editing: Drug discovery and therapeutics11. Genome editing of hPSCs: Recent progress in hPSC-based disease modeling for understanding disease mechanisms12. Genome editing in cardiovascular diseases13. CRISPR/Cas9 in epigenetics studies of health and disease14. Patents, ethics, biosafety and regulation using CRISPR technology