Nanoparticles and Plant-Microbe Interactions: An Environmental Perspective

Dr S. Sahadevan obtained her PhD in Biosciences, Mangalore University, India, December 2005. She attained a postdoctoral fellowship in Canada for 2 years (2005 -2007), Mount Allison University. She won the position of auxiliary investigator (2008 –2013), Centre of Molecular and Environmental Biology (CBMA), University of Minho (UM), Portugal. As a part of a transnational programme between Portugal and Germany, she also did research in Martin-Luther-Universitat Halle-Wittenberg and Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ (Germany) in 2011. She further won a postdoctoral position in MARE (Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, university of Coimbra, July 2015-January 2019). Currently, she is an investigator at MARE. With experience of working across 3 different continents, she has published 50 papers in international peer-review journals, out of which 3 papers are in fungal diversity journal with an impact factor of 15.6. Owing to her international experiences in different international laboratories, her co-authors are from around the world.

Akhilesh Rai has completed Bachelor (B.Sc.) in Chemistry and Botany, Chemistry from Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University, Master (M.Sc.) in Biotechnology from Savitribai Phule Pune University and PhD in Biotechnology from Savitribai Phule Pune University. After completion of his PhD, he moved to Nottingham Trent University, U.K. to pursue as a postdoctoral researcher on European Union FP7 project. He then moved to Universite Catholique Louvain as a postdoctoral researcher for 1 year. Then he joined as FCT postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, Coimbra, Portugal. In 2013, he joined as an assistant investigator at the Centre for Neuroscience and Cell Biology. In 2017, he was awarded the FCT Investigator grant and joined the Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra. Importantly, his team has been received the first prize at the first phase of the 7th Building Global Innovators (BGI-MIT Program) for the project related to the development of unique wound dressing for the treatment of the chronic wound, which led to the generation of the CureMat Technology. Our work related to antimicrobial nanoparticles have been recognized and I have been conferred the prestigious Bluepharma-University of Coimbra Innovation award (2015) for the project Bug-killer. He has published more than 24 papers in international peer-reviewed journals, 2 book chapters, 1 patent granted (2 patents submitted) with citations of more than 5000. He is also an active reviewer of many international journals related to nanotechnology, biodegradable NPs, antimicrobial materials, drug delivery, and antimicrobial surfaces. He was co-supervisor of 1 PhD student and supervisor of many master students for their theses. He is guest editor of the special issues of Nanomaterials and Antibiotics journals (MDPI publishers) and an editorial board member of the Journal of Applied Biopharmaceutics Pharmacokinetics. His research interests include the formulation of bioactive and peptide conjugated nanomaterials for regenerative medicine applications. His research group is involved in the development of light-sensitive nanoparticles for brain targeting and to understand the role of cytokines/chemokines on the integrity of the blood-brain barrier. His research group is also involved in the development of antimicrobial and bioactive coating on medical devices

Dr. Santosh Kumar is currently working as an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry, Harcourt Butler Technical University Kanpur, India. Dr. Kumar received his B.Sc, M.Sc. in Chemistry and D. Phil. in Organic Chemistry from University of Allahabad, India. During his career, Dr. Kumar has published a more than 70 research papers and book chapters. He also served as a member of different organizing committees and an editorial board member and reviewer at a number of scientific journals. Current research interest involves source apportionment of chemical modification, optical and biological properties of chitosan biopolymer for biomedical applications, hydrogel, aerogel, nanocomposite materials, drug & gene delivery and environmental chemistry.