Research Focus

His research focus is metabolic engineering of plants and microbes for value addition, enzyme/ microbes-based bioprocesses for value added products, synthetic biology and omics approaches to improve metabolic pathways or enzymatic proteins and use of nanobiology for better efficacy as well as improved enzyme-based bioprocesses. He has extensively worked on understanding the regulation of key metabolic pathways of crops like tea, stevia, rice and horsegram. He has developed low caffeine tea through gene silencing, developed seed less/ low-seeded fruits through PTGS of flavonol synthase mRNA, provided evidence of epigenetic regulation of flavonoid biosynthesis and antioxidant pathway during salinity stress, unraveled the molecular regulation of steviol glycosides in stevia and achieved enhanced GAs production through silencing of SGs pathway genes. He has developed several processes based on synthetic biology and nanobiology for the production of high value functional molecules from natural bioresources and agri-residues.

Achievements / Awards

• Fellow, The National Academy of Sciences India, Allahabad
• Fellow, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi
• S. Ramachandran- National Bioscience Award
• NASI-Reliance Industries Platinum Jubilee Award
• ‘Recognition Award’ by National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS)
• Indian National Science Academy (INSA)-Young Scientist Award
• The National Academy of Science, India (NASI)-Platinum Jubilee Young Scientist Award
• Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)-Young Scientist Award
• NAAS-Associate
• Prof. Hira Lal Chakravarty Memorial Award of Indian Science Congress Association
• Haryana Yuva Vigyan Ratna Award, Haryana Govt.
• BOYSCAST Fellowship by DST, GoI to work at UCR, CA, USA

Major Publications

• ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 2023 11, 11: 4398-4408
• International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, 2023, 238, 124054
• Journal of Biotechnology, 2023, 362, 45-53
• International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, 2023, 231, 123406
• Colloids Surf Biointerf, 2022, 217:112637
• Biomass and Bioenergy, 2022, 166:106618
• Innov Food Sci Emerg Technol 2022, 78, 103027
• Journal of Cleaner Production, 2022, 335:130286
• Food Bioproc Technol, 2022, 15:1142–1156
• Molecular Catalysis; 2021, 511:111723
• Catal. Sci. Technol. 11:2186 – 2194, 2021
• Cellulose 28:103–116, 2021
• Food Hydrocolloids 111:106240, 2021
• Int J Biol Macromol. 163:1154-1161, 2020
• ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering 6, 12:6661–6670, 2020
• Int J. Biol Macromol. 156:598-607, 2020
• Food Hydrocolloids 102:105592, 2020
• Plant Physiology and Biochemistry 154:115-128, 2020
• Ultrasonics Sonochemistry 58:104661, 2019
• Bioresour Technol. 291:121931, 2019
• Food Hydrocolloids 91:127-135, 2019
• Sci Total Environ. 690:956-964, 2019
• Int J Biol Macromol. 133:284-293, 2019
• Bioresour Technol. 275:430-433, 2019
• ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering 7:3237-3245, 2019
• Bioresour Technol. 291:121931, 2019
• ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng., 6 (5):6296–6304, 2018
• Journal of Cleaner Production, 194:158-166, 2018
• Bioresource Technology, 244:793-799, 2017
• Carbohydrate Polymer 155:152-162, 2017
• Int J Biol Macromol. 104:748-757, 2017
• Scientific Reports 6:37244, 2016
• Journal of Proteome Research 15:1794-809, 2016
• Journal of Experimental Botany 66: 5959-5969, 2015
• Journal of Experimental Botany 66: 3907-3916, 2015
• Plant Molecular Biology 85: 551-573, 2014
• BMC Genomics 14: 647, 2013
• Plant Molecular Biology 76: 523-534, 2011
• The Plant Journal 62: 92-99, 2010
• Plant Physiology 140: 613-623, 2006