Mohammad Yaseen Sofi is a PhD scholar at Division of Plant Biotechnology, SKUAST- K. He completed his Bachelor's degree from SKUAST-K in 2018. He is currently working under the guidance Dr. Khalid Z. Masoodi on bioprospecting and DNA barcoding of Kale (Brassica oleracea var Acephala). In the course of his MSc programme, he made outstanding contributions in rice research in the field of Plant Biotechnology. He has filed one US patent application in 2021. Additionally, he has extensive knowledge of bioinformatics analysis tools, which he acquired while attending various national/international seminars and workshops. Afshana Shafi did her Bachelors from SKUAST-K, followed by Masters in Plant Biotechnology from SKUAST-Kashmir, Shalimar, J&K, India. Currently, she is pursuing Ph.D from Division of Plant Biotechnology, SKUAST- K, on "Mining and Expression Analysis of Differentially Expressing Genes between selected scab resistant and susceptible apple (Malus domestica Borkh) cultivars under the guidance of Dr Khalid Masoodi. She conducted an extensive study on Expression Profiling of Near-Isogenic Lines (NILs) Carrying Blast Resistance Genes Pi9 and Pi54 in the Background of Rice Cultivar Mushk Budji as part of her MSc research programme. From achieving the twentieth position in the state of J&K during her tenth board examination to achieving the first rank during her bachelor's programme, she has always been a meritorious student with an outstanding academic and extracurricular record. In 2017-18, she was awarded with BSc. merit scholarship by SKUAST-K. Additionally during the MSc programme Afshana Shafi has obtained second position. Moreover, she has a strong hold on a variety of bioinformatic analytic softwares, which she acquired throughout her studies in the field of Biotechnology and bioinformatics. Khalid Z. Masoodi is an Associate Professor and Senior Scientist in the Division of Plant Biotechnology at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, India. He is the recipient of a number of awards and holds numerous patents. He has two decades worth of teaching and research experience in the areas of plant biotechnology, molecular biology, cancer research, and human disease research, and has published numerous articles and books. He leads a transcriptomics laboratory and works extensively with fluorescence imaging, real-time PCR, cell culture, and Western blotting platforms. His scientific interests include transcription biology in plant stress responses and cancer, as well as the discovery of new drugs from medicinal plants.