Cotton Breeding and Biotechnology

Dr. Zulqurnain Khan is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Plant Breeding and Biotechnology (IPBB), MNS University of Agriculture, Multan (MNSUAM), Pakistan. Dr. Khan earned his PhD in Biotechnology from the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (UAF), Pakistan, in 2017. He is the first PhD candidate from Pakistan to have a thesis on genome editing. He has been working in the field of genome editing since 2012. His research focuses on using genome-editing tools (TALEs, TALENs, Cas9, dCas9, and multiplexed CRISPR/Cas9) for resistance against begomoviruses using model plants such as Arabidopsis and Nicotiana benthamiana. He has developed resistance in cotton against CLCuD using multiplex CRISPR/Cas system. He is also using CRISPR/Cas9 technology for the genetic improvement in cereal crops for abiotic and biotic stress resistance. He has published one book chapter, two review articles, and three research articles in international peerreviewed journals. Dr. Khan received an IRSIP fellowship from Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan, during his PhD and worked as a visiting researcher with Prof. Caixia Gao at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (IGDB), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, China. Dr. Khan has been engaged in teaching various courses in the field of biotechnology, breeding, molecular biology, genetics, and genome editing since 2018. Dr. Khan has recently edited two books for Springer Nature entitled "CRISPR Crops: The Future of Food Security" and "The CRISPR/Cas Tool Kit for Genome Editing".