Agricultural Biotechnology

Dr. Vidya Venkataram obtained her PhD from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore where she won the Young Scientist award for her PhD work. After a brief experience at the Pennsylvania State University, USA and the US Vitamins Pharmaceuticals, she moved to Toronto where she functioned as Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) Fellow in Regenerative Medicine at the Toronto General Hospital and the Toronto Medical Laboratories. She then held assignment as a Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Guelph. She is currently a Visiting Scientist at the Department of Cell & Systems Biology, University of Toronto. She has over 45 publications and has contributed a book. Her primary research interests are in the areas of viruses, virus-like particles, food security, genetic engineering and biotechnology. She lives with her family in Toronto. Kathleen Hefferon received her PhD from the Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Cornell University. Kathleen has published multiple research papers, chapters and reviews, and has written three books. Kathleen is the Fulbright Canada Research Chair of Global Food Security and has been a visiting professor at the University of Toronto over the past year. Her research interests include virus expression vectors, food security agricultural biotechnology and global health. She most recently held the title of Director of Operations, Human Metabolic Research Unit at Cornell University, Ithaca, United States

• 1. Engineered microbes for improved soil and plant health2. Biofortified crops3. Genetically engineered plant products for health: Plant made pharmaceuticals4. Genomed edited crops5. Gene drive focusing on agriculture6. Phytoremediation strategies using microbiotechnology (eg plastic eating microbes)7. Application of Genetic engineering8. Strategies to address climate change9. Repurposing food and agricultural waste using microbiotechnology10. Synthetic Microbiology and microbial symbiosis11. Metabolic Engineering of plants for secondary metabolite production12. Sustainability through agricultural microbiotechnology13. Economic benefit14. Biofuel production and agricultural microbiotechnology15. Development of molecular biomarkers in plant and plant molecular breeding16. Public perception, intellectual property issues17. Future of microbiotechnology in agricultural practices