Role of Medicinal Plants in Autoimmune Diseases Concepts, Perspectives, and Utilization

Dr. Reetika Mahajan is currently working as a woman scientist at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology of Kashmir (SKUAST-Kashmir), J&K, India. She has 4 years of Research and more than one year of teaching experience in different subjects of Biotechnology. Her research interests include plant genomics and proteomics, molecular breeding, biochemistry, and transgenics. Earlier, she was deeply involved in teaching undergraduate courses such as Cell and Molecular Biology, Genomics and Proteomics, Tissue culture, Environmental biotechnology, etc. at college level. Her editorial activities and scientific memberships include publishing research and review articles in international journals and as a reviewer. Dr Mahajan has published various research and review papers, book chapters on Molecular breeding, genomics and proteomic techniques, and stress tolerant crop plants. She is also reviewer of a few reputed journals: Current Agriculture Research Journal, Journal of Agriculture and Food Research, Recent Patents on Food, Nutrition & Agriculture. She received individual grants (WOS-B) from DST, New Delhi for conducting research.

Dr. Faheem Shehjar is presently working as Post Doc Research Associate of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Nebraska Medical Centre. Earlier, he worked as Senior Resident at the Advanced Centre for Human Genetics, Sher-I-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS). He obtained his doctorate in Biomedical Sciences from SKIMS (2017). He was awarded the prestigious CSIR-JRF fellowship (2012). Dr. Shehjar was also awarded the Exemplary Researcher Award, SKIMS (2019). Dr. Shehjar has published his research in various international reputed journals and has extensive experience in medical genetics and immunology and holds co-editorship at Intech Open Publications. His expertise includes immunology and genetics.

Sajad Majeed Zargar, Ph.D, is currently an Assistant Professor at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Sciences & Technology in India and visiting Professor at University of Padova, Italy. Dr. Zargar is the recipient of the CREST overseas fellowship from DBT, the Goho grant from Govt. of Japan, and the Erasmus Fellowship from European Union. He is also a member and representative of INPPO (International Plant Proteomics Organisation). His editorial activities and scientific memberships include publishing research and review articles in international journals and is also reviewer.

Dr. Khalid Zaffar Masoodi is a young scientist who works as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Plant Biotechnology at the Sher-e Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology in Kashmir (India). He holds a Master's degree in Biotechnology and a doctorate in Plant Biotechnology. Dr. Masoodi is the recipient of numerous awards, including the SERB Early Career Research Award 2016, the SBUR Travel Award in the United States of America in 2012, and the Society of Endocrinology Journal Award in 2018 at Glasgow United Kingdoms. Dr. Masoodi has a distinguished academic record, having qualified for the CSIR-UGC net in Life Sciences, the DBT-BET JRF, and the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering and Sciences (GATE) while doing his Masters in Biotechnology. Dr. Masoodi has filed Six patent applications in last 2 years, has over 12 years of teaching and research experience, and has published numerous scientific articles in the fields of cancer research, human disease research, and biotechnology research. His laboratory (Transcriptomics Laboratory, often known as K-Lab, after the Klenow fragment) at SKUAST-K is fully equipped with fluorescence imaging, real-time PCR, cell culture, and Western blotting including other state-of-the-art equipment. His research interests span multiple dimensions, including transcriptomics of plant stress biology (biotic/abiotic) and cancer biology. Apart from that, he is extensively involved in the research of new drugs from medicinal plants. Additionally, he is a co-author of Advanced Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Methods (Academic Press, 2020).

Zahoor Shah works in the University of Toledo, OH, USA.