Microalgae for Sustainable Products The Green Synthetic Biology Platform

Dr. Shekh is an early career microalgal biotechnologist affiliated to CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore, India as a DST-INSPIRE Faculty and an Assistant Professor of Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR). With his studies on microalgal lipids, Dr. Shekh earned his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur, India. During his Ph.D. he also worked at Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB), Daejeon, South Korea. He did his overseas postdoctoral studies from Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa. He also served as a visiting researcher at the University of Queensland, Australia and worked on microalgae cultivation at lab and commercial scale. His research interest extends from fundamental biochemistry of microalgal systems to industry relevant research investigations. He is the recipient of DST-INSPIRE faculty fellowship, Indo-Australian career boosting gold fellowship, National Postdoctoral fellowship, Early career research grant award, Indo-Korea Research internship fellowship and CSIR- Senior research fellowship.

Dr. Dasgupta spent more than thirty years in Biotechnology research in various key leadership roles. He has contributed significantly to the discovery of various biotech traits and led many breakthrough global agriculture biotechnology programs. Apart from being the author of more than 90 papers in several International journals, Dr. Dasgupta is also the inventor of numerous patents across various countries in the area of pathogen resistance in plants, drought tolerance, gene expression, improved algae, high value chemicals etc. Dr. Dasgupta, a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology, in addition to many technical and leadership roles, also worked as Director, Regulatory policy and Scientific Affairs and played a significant role in Biotech outreach and regulatory policy for Biotech traits in India. Currently as a Senior Vice President, he heads the Synthetic Biology and Algae to Oil R&D at Reliance Industries Limited with a focus on biofuel, food, feed, nutrition and biomaterials produced through synthetic biology route. Dr. Dasgupta is a member of many technical advisory committees and Governing bodies including Member for Global Council of Synthetic Biology, World Economic Forum.