CRISPRized Horticulture Crops

Prof. Kamel A. Abd-Elsalam, Ph.D., is currently a research professor at the Plant Pathology Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Giza. Kamel earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Plant Pathology from Christian Alberchts University of Kiel (Germany) and Suez Canal University (Egypt). Dr. Kamel's research interests include developing, improving, and deploying plant biosecurity diagnostic tools; understanding and exploiting fungal pathogen genomes; and developing eco-friendly hybrid nanomaterials for controlling toxicogenic fungi, plant diseases, and agroecosystems applications. He published 20 books related to nano-biotechnology applications in agriculture and plant protection. Since 2019, he has served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Elsevier book series "Nanobiotechnology for Plant Protection.? He also serves as the Series Editor of the Elsevier book series "Genome Modified Plants and Microbes in Food and Agriculture.? Aftab Ahmad earned his PhD and completed postdoctoral research in plant molecular biology at the University of Shizuoka, Japan, under the prestigious 21st Century Center of Excellence Program. He also served as a Visiting Scientist in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California Davis, United States. With over a decade of teaching experience in biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan, Dr. Aftab now continues to advance plant genome editing research aimed at improving crop resilience and productivity at the Natural & Medical Sciences Research Center, University of Nizwa, Oman. He has published in leading international peer-reviewed journals such as Frontiers in Plant Science, Journal of Biomedical Science, Plant Molecular Biology Reporter, Journal of Cereal Science, Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution, and many more.

Baohong Zhang is a THCAS Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biology at East Carolina University and an internationally recognized leader in genomics and biotechnology. He earned his bachelor's degree in Plant Genetics and Breeding from China Agricultural University and his PhD in Environmental Toxicology from Texas Tech University. For over 20 years, Dr. Zhang has conducted pioneering research in transgenic technologies, genome editing, and functional genomics, supported by major funding agencies such as the NSF, NIH, DoD, and USDA, as well as industry partners including the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and DuPont. He is a prolific author, with several publications listed as Highly Cited Papers by the ISI Web of Science. He is Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor, or Guest Editor for multiple international journals, including Functional & Integrative Genomics, Plants, Scientific Reports, Plant Biotechnology Journal, Molecular Biotechnology, Plant Molecular Biology, and Journal of Cotton Research. A Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Dr. Zhang has received numerous honors, including more recently the ECU Achievement in International Research and Creative Activity Award (2017), the Cotton Researcher of the Year (2018), the Lifetime Achievement Research Award (2019), and the Cotton Biotechnology Award (2020).