About
Dr. Akhilesh K. Kushawaha is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Sharda University. He obtained his B.Sc. degree from DDU Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, M.Sc. from Bundelkhand University, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, India with a specialization in Biochemistry and his Ph.D. degree in Plant Molecular Biology on the topic “Sequence analysis, Infectivity and gene functions in Sri Lankan cassava mosaic virus” from University of Delhi with Prof. Indranil Dasgupta, specializing in the field of molecular biology of plant viruses and plant-virus interactions. In 2017, He joined International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi, India as a prestigious SERB-National Post Doctoral Fellowship (N-PDF) with Prof. Sudhir Kumar Sopory. During N-PDF tenure, he carried out the research on the molecular mechanism of high temperature priming treatment leading to tolerance response towards abiotic stresses in rice. He found out the involvement of miRNAs pathway in the adaptation to recurring heat stress (HS) memory at the physiological, molecular and transcriptomics level and in 2019, also received another prestigious fellowship Dr. D. S. Kothari Post Doctoral Fellowship-2019-2022 (UGC-New Delhi) with Prof. K. Muniyappa at Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India and later his fellowship transferred under Prof. Shailja Singh at Special Centre for Molecular Medicine, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. He also qualified GATE examination. His research area focuses on the Biochemistry of Plant-Microbe interactions, RNAi Biology, Stress memory and its regulation in Plants.