Gene Editing in Cereals: Approaches and Applications

Dr. Kamel A. Abd-Elsalam is currently working as a research professor at the Plant Pathology Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Giza, Egypt. Dr. Kamel earned his PhD in molecular plant pathology from Christian Albrechts University of Kiel, Germany and Suez Canal University, Egypt. In 2008, he was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the same institution. He has published 332+ scientific articles and 41+ books related to nanobiotechnology applications in agriculture and plant protection with global publishing houses. He was ranked in the top 2% of the most influential scientists in the world in nanobiotechnology for three consecutive years of 2021 2025 by Stanford University. In 2014, he was awarded the Federation of Arab Scientific Research Councils Prize for excellent scientific research in biotechnology (fungal genomics). Egyptian State Award for Agricultural Scientific Excellence, ASRT (2022).

Dr. Aftab Ahmad is currently an Associate Professor in the Natural and Medical Sciences Research Center (NMSRC), University of Nizwa, Oman. Dr. Aftab’s research interests include developing insect/pest resistance in date palm, virus-resistant cotton, and salt-tolerant plants using CRISPR/Cas technology. He has published more than 50 research articles in international peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Aftab pursued his PhD and postdocs in plant molecular biology from the University of Shizuoka, Japan, under the Center of Excellence (COE, 21st Century) program. Dr. Aftab also served as a visiting scientist in the Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, USA. He has more than 10 years of teaching biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan, and his research focuses on CRISPR/Cas-based genome editing in plants.