Crop Improvement: Sustainability Through Leading-Edge Technology

Siti Nor Akmar Abdullah is currently the Director of the Institute of Plantation Studies and a Professor in Plant Molecular Biology at the Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). Her current research focuses on functional genomics as well as genetic manipulation and biomarker technology for yield and oil quality improvement, enhancing nutrient uptake and disease tolerance in oil palm. She has led several research projects at the national level and secured research grants from oil palm industry members. She has more than eighty papers in citation-indexed journals and 5 granted patents on oil palm genetic manipulation tools and molecular disease diagnosis. Twenty-five PhD students have graduated under her as the main or co-supervisor. She has delivered several talks as an invited speaker in various countries like Australia, China, India and Indonesia and also served as a reviewer for many international peer-reviewed journals. She has led national and international conferences and workshops on plant biotechnology and molecular biology in collaboration with Wageningen University, University of Reading and the University of Nottingham. She has established an internationally certified core research facility for functional genomics and genetic engineering in UPM.

Ho Chai Ling is a Professor in Plant Molecular Biology at the Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). She is also a research associate at the Institute of Plantation Studies, UPM. She obtained her PhD from Chiba University, Japan, unravelling the molecular biology of the phosphorylated serine biosynthetic pathway. She was the recipient of several schloraship/fellowships including the MONBUSHO Scholarship and Fulbright Visiting Scholarship. Her current research interests include molecular interactions of oil palm and Ganoderma, transcriptional regulation of rice grain filling process and molecular characterization of transcripts related to seaweed agar biosynthesis. Dr. Ho has published more than 100 papers in citation-indexed journals including Trends in Plant Sciences, Plant Journal, Journal of Biological Chemistry and BMC Genomics. She has supervised six PhD and twenty M.Sc. students. Dr. Ho has served as accessor for many grant applications, and reviewer for many international peer-reviewed journals. She also serves in the organising committee of several national and international conferences and workshops on plant biotechnology, phycology, functional genomics and structural biology.

Carol Wagstaff is presently Professor of Crop Quality for Health in the Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Reading and is the Director of The AgriFood Training Partnership. Her research team works on a range of projects spanning the fresh produce supply chain with the overall aim of improving nutrition, flavour and shelf life of fruit and vegetable crops, thereby encouraging consumption of a healthy diet and reducing waste. The research group is best known for its expertise in combining metabolite profiling with a genetic approach to crop improvement, but also has projects based in agronomy, supply chain modelling, innovative processing design and molecular regulation. Funding is currently from BBSRC, Innovate UK, international government schemes and a significant portion is from industry partners who represent crop breeders and processors.