Climate-Smart Crops

Dr. Vimal Chandra Pandey is an applied research scientist of phyto- and phycoremediation at Chandigarh University, India. He obtained his PhD from Dr. RML Avadh University and conducted post-doctoral research at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, India. Dr. Pandey’s research focuses on the remediation and management of polluted sites using ecologically and socio-economically valuable plants and algae. His work focuses strongly on restoring ecosystem services and developing a bio-based economy in support of the UN SDGs. Dr. Pandey is a member of the IUCN commission on Ecosystem Management and the National Academy of Sciences, India. He is the author and editor of several books, including Elsevier’s Algae and Aquatic Macrophytes in Cities, Bioremediation of Pollutants, and more. 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.

• SECTION 1: Current trends, tools and policies to make climate smart crops1. Synthetic biology for smart crops designing to adapt climate change2. Potential of genome designing for producing climate resilient crops3. Patents, ethics and regulatory issues to design climate smart plants4. “Biosafety of Genome Editing Applications in developing resilient crops”SECTION 2: Resilience and adaptation of crops to climate change5. Designing climate resilient traits in crops via genomics-assisted breeding strategies6. Genome editing for designing climate-resilient fibre crops7. Genome editing in medicinal and aromatic plants8. Innovations in plant genomics adapting floriculture to climate change9. Climate resilient fodder crops via genome engineering10. Climate-resilient rice cropping system via CRISPR-Cas SystemsSECTION 3: Phytoremediation enhancement and biofuel revolution11. Enhanced phytomining by Genome Editing and Transformation12. Genome editing for adapting energy crops to climate change13. Genetic Improvement Of biomass producing crops as a potential feedstock14. Genetic engineering of oilseed crops: possibilities and prospects15. Genetic improvement of potential plants for phytoremediation programsSECTION 4: Crop yield improvement and disease management16. Genome editing for cereal crop yield improvement17. Oilseed crop yield improvement via CRISPR-Cas systems18. Pulse crop yield improvement via CRISPR-Cas systems19. Development of horticultural crops using CRISPR-Cas9 systems20. Genetic improvement of vegetable crops21. Genome engineering for virus disease-resistance crop varieties22. Genome engineering for control of bacterial infections in crops23. Developing fungal disease-resistant crop varieties by genome editing