Microbiome Innovations

Vijai Singh serves as Professor and 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, Dr 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. Dr. 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, 27 books and 3 patents to his credits. Dr. 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. He serves as an associate editor, editorial board members and reviewers of several reputed peer-reviewed journals. Indra Mani is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology, Gargi College, University of Delhi (DU), New Delhi, India. He received M.Sc. in Microbiology from Bundelkhand University (BU), Jhansi, UP, India, and Ph.D. in Biochemistry (2010) from Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, UP, India. He completed postdoctoral training in the Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He has worked as a Senior Research Officer (SRO) in the Department of Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, India. He has more than 13 years of research and teaching experience in Microbiology, Molecular Genetics, Cell Signaling, and Bioinformatics. He has published more than 50 research articles in peer-reviewed journals, 58 book chapters, and 8 books. He received the MBSI (Microbiologist Society, India) Senior Teacher award-2024 and Agathiyar Chemical Biology award-2024 from the Society of Chemical and Synthetic Biology, India. He has extensive experience in microbial characterization, molecular genetics, cell culture, fluorescence/confocal microscopy, and in silico analysis. He is a life member of the Association of Microbiologists of India (AMI), the Microbiologists Society, India (MBSI), the Society for Chemical & Synthetic Biology (SCSB), the Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA), Indian Network for Soil Contamination Research (INSCR), and Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation Society (ABCS), India. He has presented several papers in the different national and international conferences. He serves as an editorial board member, reviewer of peer-reviewed journals, and a member of national and international societies.

• Chapter 1: Insight into the soil microbiome and its applications. Chapter 2: Advances in techniques for studying microbiome. Chapter 3: Artificial intelligence and machine learning for analysis of microbiome. Chapter 4: Next generation sequencing (NGS) technology and bioinformatics pipelines for Generation and Analysis of Microbiome data. Chapter 5: Advancements in Next-Generation Sequencing: A Deep Dive into the Microbiome Research. Chapter 6: Metagenomics approaches for microbiome. Chapter 7: Metagenomics in microbiome consortium. Chapter 8: Metagenomics in prospecting of genes of agricultural importance. Chapter 9: Uses of microbiome for improvements of plant ability to utilize nutrients. Chapter 10: Microbiome in improvements of crop yield to utilize biofertilizers. Chapter 11: Rhizosphere microbiome in improvements of nutrient uptake of plants. Chapter 12: Mechanism and perspectives of microbiome in improvements of salinity tolerance. Chapter 13: Mechanism and perspectives of microbiome in improvements of drought tolerance. Chapter 14: Exploring the use of microbiomes as biocontrol agents to manage pests and diseases. Chapter 15: CRISPR-Cas-based Microbiome Editing. Chapter 16: Microbiome in crop improvements at high altitude. Chapter 17: Microbiome in crop improvements at high temperature. Chapter 18: Microbiome: Current challenges and opportunities.