Dr Pankaj Kumar

Pankaj is currently working on a Pulse Crop Genetic Improvement Network (PCGIN) project under the supervision of Dr Sanu Arora and Professor Janneke Balk, focusing on pea.

This project is to serve the purpose of legume (pulse) crop improvement with multiple academics and industry partners, including farmers.

Pankaj’s research will address several objectives of the PCGIN programme. His focus is on the development of an efficient and reproducible CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing system in pea. This method could have the potential of precise trait improvement in pea as well as applications in other legumes.

Additionally, Pankaj is working on the development of a virus screening method and pea diversity panel to map genetic loci against selected pea viruses, with his findings delivered to breeding companies.

Pankaj received his PhD from the Institute of Plant Genetics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznań, Poland. He worked on pea–fungus interactions and the optimization of CRISPR-Cas gene editing in pea.

In his free time, Pankaj enjoys reading social and cultural philosophy and fundamental scientific books, as well as cooking, travel, badminton or exploring the outdoors cycling with 1990s Bollywood songs.

If you have any input, enquiries, or are interested in discussing targeted delivery systems for gene editing in legumes, pea–virus/fungus diseases, nutrition or molecular farming, please reach out.