Rakesh Kumar

Academic profile:

Postdoc (August 2022 - Present), Department of Plant & Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, USA

Postdoc (Dec 2019 - July 2022), School of Plant Sciences and Food Security Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

PhD (2018), Biotechnology (Plant Biotechnology), University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET), Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra and ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (-ICAR-IIWBR), Karnal, Haryana, India

M.Tech (2012), Biotechnology (Plant Biotechnology), UIET, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, Haryana, India

B.Tech (2009), Biotechnology, UIET, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, Haryana, India

I was born and raised in the countryside of North India (a major hub for cereal crops). I started my research journey in plant science with my bachelor’s degree. Thereafter, I worked on different plant species to get knowledge and expertise on various methods and tools to study plants, especially under biotic and abiotic stresses. I have worked extensively on wheat genetic engineering including CRISPR during my PhD and postdoc. At Tel Aviv university, I worked on a wheat-rust interaction project and validated a novel rust gene from wild to hexaploid wheat. I joined Krasileva’s lab to add to my skills in the field of wheat genetics. I am positive to explore new genes which will provide new insights to the plant science community.