Dr. Amjad Masood Husaini, a young Scientist working as Assistant Professor-cum-Jr. Scientist (Senior Scale) in Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology of Kashmir (India) holds a Ph.D. in Biotechnology and PG Diploma in Bioinformatics (Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi), besides certificates in Intellectual Property Rights (Indian Law Institute, New Delhi) and Remote Sensing Applications in Agriculture (Indian Agricultural Research Institute-Indian Space Research Organization). With an illustrious academic career Dr. Husaini has excelled in NET (Life Sciences) of CSIR and NET (Agricultural Biotechnology) of ICAR, being among the top position holders, and won Gold and Silver for his presentations in several seminars/conferences. Recipient of Young Scientist Award-2009 in Agriculture (Jammu & Kashmir State Council for Science & Technology, Government of J&K) http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2010/Dec/4/an-urge-to-explore-the-uni... , Jawahar Lal Nehru Award for Agricultural Research-2008 (Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Government of India) www.icar.org.in/files/press-release/award-citation-2009.pdf , Junior Scientist of the Year Award-2007 (National Environmental Sciences Academy, New Delhi), his biography has been included in 27th edition of Marquis Who’s Who in the World, in recognition of his contribution to the advancement of Environmental and Agricultural sciences. He is also listed at serial number 170 among the Indian Muslim Legends http://indianmuslimlegends.blogspot.in/2011/07/170-dr-amjad-masood-husa…. He was featured in Indian Muslim Observer as a Scientist of International Repute on July 18th 2012 http://www.indianmuslimobserver.com/2012/07/people-dr-amjad-masood-husa…. Amjad M. Husaini is a founder member of Division of Biotechnology at SKUAST Kashmir, and has initiated biotechnological research on major field crops like rice and mustard etc. Earlier Dr. Husaini along with his fellow colleagues at Mountain Research Centre for Field Crops (erstwhile Rice Research & Regional Station), SKUAST of Kashmir worked industriously in research, development and popularization of high yielding rice varieties suitable for Kashmir zone http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2009/Oct/11/-seed-an-essential-input-... . Though his field of specialization is Biotechnology, yet he has contributed significantly in research and development of two cold tolerant temperate cms (cytoplasmic male sterile) lines SKAU-7A & SKAU-11A, and two blast resistant high yielding cold tolerant rice varieties Shalimar Rice 2 (SKAU-341) & Shalimar Rice 3 (SKAU-382). He has characterized more than 500 rice germplasm accessions and maintained these in the germplasm bank at MRCFC, Khudwani. Besides he has significantly contributed in the initiation and conduct of programmes for quality rice development, purification of indigenous scented landraces like ‘Mushk budgi’ & ‘Kamad’, evaluation of local red rice types ‘Zag’, popularization of basmati introductions like Pusa Sugandh-3, and research and development of early maturing basmati type rice suitable for cultivation in Kashmir valley. He is involved in hybrid rice development (between indica and japonica types), and in generation, evaluation of elite breeding material with cold tolerance, blast resistance, early maturity and improved yield through extensive inter-varietal crossing. He is also involved in the field testing of rice trials constituted at National level by Directorate of Rice Research, Hyderabad under AICRIP (All India Coordinated Rice Improvement Project), and observational nurseries supplied by International Rice Research Institute, Phillipines (IRRI) under INGER (International Network for Genetic Evaluation of Rice) programme. http://ways.org/en/blog/amjadhusainiDr. Amjad has delivered some TV talks, and conducted / participated in awareness programmes (like Kisan melas, Kisan ghoshtis, T&V) organized from time to time for the benefit of farming community by SKUAST-K (Directorates of Research, Directorate of Extension Education), Department of Agriculture Production, Government of J&K, etc http://www.risingkashmir.in/news/non-agriculture-use-of-paddy-land-hits… . Recently he delivered a talk entitled “Biotech crops: Imperative for accomplishment of MDGs and Agricultural Sustainability in 21st Century” in the plenary session “Moving forward with agricultural biotechnology in India: scientific regulatory and societal challenges” in the 99th Indian Science Congress, Bubneshwar, Orissa (3-7th Jan 2012), which was highly appreciated by the audience. http://kiit.tv/archiveinner.asp?id=415. He is associated as Environmental Editor of Indian Muslim Observer amongst other distinguished Editors like Danish Ahmad Khan, Nabeel A. Khan, Tausif Malik, Mike Ghouse, Ibrahim B. Syed, and Dr. Vivek Sharma http://www.indianmuslimobserver.com/p/our-team_22.html.
He has published quality research papers in national and international journals of repute, on different aspects of agricultural biotechnology. He has conducted successful transformation of strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch) with gus gene, using Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain LBA 4404 containing pBI 121 as a binary vector and has successfully developed salinity-tolerant transgenic strawberry overexpressing osmotin gene of Nicotiana tabacum.His published titles/books include: 1. “Strawberry: Transgenics for stresses”. LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing GmbH & Co. KG, Germany ISBN: 978-3-8433-6280-1 [Pages-247] (http://www.amazon.com/Strawberry-Transgenics-stresses-AMJAD-HUSAINI/dp/3...)2. “Saffron” (ISBN: 978-4-903313-67-2; ISSN: 1749-0472). [Pages-135] (http://www.globalsciencebooks.info/JournalsSup/10FPSB_4_SI2.html)3. “Medicinal Plants of the Himalayas: Advances and Insights” (ISBN: 978-4-903313-65-8; ISSN: 1752-3389). [Pages-93] (http://www.globalsciencebooks.info/JournalsSup/10MAPSB_4_SI1.html)4. “Genomics, Transgenics, Molecular Breeding and Biotechnology of Strawberry” Husaini AM and Mercado JA (Eds.), (ISBN: 978-4-903313-81-8; ISSN: 1749-0383). [Pages-131] (http://www.globalsciencebooks.info/JournalsSup/11GGG_5_SI1.html)
5. “Molecular Biotechnology: Basic Laboratory Protocols”. Imtiyaz Murtaza, Amjad M. Husaini, Dhuha Mushtaq. Copyright @ 2012 by Akademikeverlag GmbH and Co. KG, Germany ISBN: 978-3-659-21385-4 [Pages-177]
(http://www.amazon.co.uk/Molecular-Biotechnology-Basic-Laboratory-Protoc…)
and more than three dozen research/review papers journals of repute, discussing different aspects of agricultural research and technology.His significant research articles are listed in (copy-paste the link given below in address bar)
http://scholar.google.co.in/citations?hl=en&user=hLFh-P0AAAAJ&view_op=l…
AND include:
Husaini AM, Abdin MZ, Khan S, Xu YW, Aquil S, Anis M (2012) Modifying strawberry for better adaptability to adverse impact of climate change. Current Science 102: 102: 1660-1673 www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/102/12/1660.pdf
Zhao D, Xu YW, Yang GL, Husaini AM, Wu W (2013) Variation of essential oil of Mentha haplocalyx Briq. and Mentha spicata L. from China. Industrial Crops and Products 42: 251-260 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2012.06.010
Husaini AM, Rafiqi AM (2011) Role of osmotin in strawberry improvement. Plant Molecular Biology Reporter (Published online 1st) DOI: 10.1007/s11105-011-0394-2 www.springerlink.com/index/726630116661117U.pdf
Husaini AM, Rashid Z, Mir RR, Aquil B (2011) Approaches for gene targeting and targeted gene expression in plants. GM Crops 2: 150-162 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22179193
Husaini AM, Mercado JA, Schaart JG, Teixeira da Silva JA (2011) Review of Factors Affecting Organogenesis, Somatic Embryogenesis and Agrobacterium tumefaciens-Mediated Transformation of Strawberry. In: Husaini AM and Mercado JA (Eds) Genomics, Transgenics, Molecular Breeding and Biotechnology of Strawberry. Genes Genomes and Genomics 5 (Special Issue1), 1-11
Sanghera GS, Husaini AM, Parray GA, Rather AG, Shikari AB, Wani SA (2010) Generation of cold tolerant CMS lines of rice and identification of maintainers/restorers for hybrid rice development in Kashmir. Indian Journal of Crop Sciences 5: 143-146
Husaini AM, Abdin MZ, Parray GA, Sanghera GS, Murtaza I, Alam T, Srivastava DK, Farooqi H, Khan HN (2010) Vehicles and ways for efficient nuclear transformation in plants. GM Crops 1:1-12 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21844685
Husaini AM, Hassan B, Ghani MY, Teixeira da Silva JA, Kirmani NA (2010) Saffron (Crocus sativus Kashmirianus) cultivation in Kashmir: Practices and problems. In: Husaini AM (Ed) Saffron. Functional Plant Science and Biotechnology 4 (Special Issue 2), 108-115
Husaini AM, Kamili AN, Wani MH, Teixeira da Silva JA, Bhat GN (2010) Sustainable Saffron (Crocus sativus Kashmirianus) Production: Technological and Policy Interventions for Kashmir. In: Husaini AM (Ed) Saffron. Functional Plant Science and Biotechnology 4 (Special Issue 2), 116-127
Husaini AM (2010) Pre- and Post-Agroinfection strategies for efficient leaf disc transformation and regeneration of transgenic strawberry plants. Plant Cell Reports 29:97-110 DOI 10.1007/s00299-009-0801-4 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19956955
Sanghera GS, Husaini AM, Rather AG, Parray GA, Shikari AB (2010) SKAU 7A and SKAU 11A: New cold tolerant CMS lines from Kashmir, India. International Rice Research Notes 1-3 beta.irri.org/publications/images/stories/irrn/.../GenRes_IRRN2010-001.pdf
Aquil S, Husaini AM, Abdin MZ, Rather GM (2009) Overexpression of HMG-CoA reductase gene leads to enhanced artemisinin biosynthesis in transgenic Artemisia annua L. plants. Planta Medica 75: 1-6 DOI 10.1055/s-0029-1185775 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19551613
Husaini AM, Abdin MZ (2008) Development of transgenic strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) plants tolerant to salt stress. Plant Science 174: 446-455 doi:10.1016/j.plantsci.2008.01.007 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168945208000083
Husaini AM, Abdin MZ (2008) Overexpression of tobacco osmotin gene leads to salt stress tolerance in strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) plants. Indian J. of Biotechnology 7: 465-472 http://www.niscair.res.in/sciencecommunication/researchjournals/rejour/i...
Husaini AM, Abdin MZ (2007) Interactive effect of light, temperature and TDZ on the regeneration potential of leaf discs of Fragaria x ananassa Duch. In vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology-Plant 43:576-584 DOI 10.1007/s11627-007-9048-3 www.springerlink.com/index/v8572j98218278u5.pdf
Dr. Husaini has served/serves as member of professional associations like World Association of Young Scientists http://ways.org/en/blogs/2008/aug/03/amjad_husaini , New York Academy of Sciences, The Indian Science Congress Association, Biotechnology Society of India, National Environmental Science Academy (India) http://www.nesa.in/Members.html, www.nesa.in/Newsletter/aug2009.pdf , Young Professionals’ Platform for Agricultural Research for Development, Scientists Without Borders, International Association of Computer Science and Information Technology, Royal Society of Crop Science, International Society for Biosafety Research, and serves in the capacity of editor/ associate editor etc. in editorial boards of various International journals of repute like International Journal for Biotechnology and Molecular Biology Research http://www.academicjournals.org/ijbmbr/Editors.htm, Journal of Developmental Biology and Tissue Engineering http://www.academicjournals.org/jdbte/Editors.htm, International Research Journal of Biotechnology http://interesjournals.org/IRJOB/editors.htm.RESEARCH INTERESTXenobiotic detoxification/ bioremediation with transgenic plants is the prime research problem that fascinates me. Interest in bioremediation of land using plants is of special significance because the capital costs and the operational costs of using plants for bioremediation are several times lesser than the use of equal amount of bacterial biomass and the implementation is easy and non-invasive. Unfortunately most plants lack the versatility that enables microorganisms to detoxify a wide variety of xenobiotic compounds. Therefore, I am interested in ‘digging out’ a potential candidate gene from microbial source and transfer it into a suitable plant for its over-expression, using Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer technology. This approach will combine the most suitable plant for the task with over-expression of a high capacity metal uptake transporter. I have several potential plants in mind and the most suitable among these is mustard (Brassica juncea) because of its rapid biomass production and higher capacity to accumulate lead, strontium, cesium, chromium, nickel and cadmium. There are a few good candidate genes that can be targeted into this plant to enhance its metal mopping capacity and am therefore interested in developing such transgenic mustard plants. In my opinion, textbook depictions of metabolism as rigid pathways do not accurately reflect the dynamic nature of plant metabolism and this static picture limits our understanding of the function of genes and their protein products. As sessile organisms, plants require a tremendously flexible metabolism to allow them to adapt to, and withstand changing environmental conditions. This requirement for flexibility and adaptability is reflected in the presence of gene families in plant genomes; individual members of the same gene family fulfill subtly different roles. I am therefore interested in using proteomic and reverse genetic approaches to identify and functionally characterize this defense network in plants. At the metabolic level, I am interested in developing metabolic flux maps and link them to transcriptomic and proteomic changes so as to generate a systematic picture of the regulatory hierarchy that controls metabolism during stress. Furthermore, I am interested in using computational methods to explore the relationship between structure and function in stress proteins. Computer simulations allow proteins to ‘come alive’ and hence help to explore the relationship between (static) structure and dynamic function. My long-term research goal is to generate a more complete picture of the way in which changes in gene expression adjust and control the metabolic network to suit the prevailing conditions.
PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE
Though not an adept and strict follower of Islamic way of life, yet he tries to follow the Sufi tradition of Islam which believes in the Unity and Love of God and in the Service His Creation; and believes in the words of Hazrat Inayat Khan: “The whole manifestation is duality....and behind duality is unity”. He is always in quest of spiritual guidance and the true sources of knowledge-trans-national, trans-cultural, trans-religious. Some of the noteworthy books that form an important part of his collection include:
The Holy Quran
Good News Bible by Bible Society of India
Bhagwat Gita
The Gathas by Hazrat Inayat Khan
The Alchemy of Happiness by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Mental Purification and Healing by Hazrat Inayat Khan
The Way of Illumination by Hazrat Inayat Khan
The Dance of the Soul by Hazrat Inayat Khan
The Art of Personality by Hazrat Inayat Khan
A Sufi Master Answers: On the Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan by Dr. Elisabeth Keesing
Philosophy, Psychology, Mysticism by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Diwan of Inayat Khan by Jessie Duncan Westbrook
Fear and Light by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Smiling by Hazrat Inayat Khan
The Awakening by Peer Vilayat Inayat Khan
The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
Spirits Rebellious by Khalil Gibran
Secrets of the Heart by Khalil Gibran
Tears and Laughter by Khalil Gibran
Thoughts and Meditations by Khalil Gibran
The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam by Sir Muhammad Iqbal
The Secrets of the Self (Asrar-i- Khudi) by Sir Muhammad Iqbal
Wine of the Mystic (The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam-A Spiritual Interpretation) by Sri Sri Parmahansa Yognanda
Whispers from Eternity by Sri Sri Parmahansa Yognanda
Autobiography of a Yogi by Sri Sri Parmahansa Yognanda
Where are our Departed Loved Ones? Sri Sri Parmahansa Yognanda
Remolding Your Life Sri Sri Parmahansa Yognanda
Overcoming Character Liabilities by Sri Sri Daya Mata
The Choice is Yours- Ethics in Vedanta by Central Chinmaya Mission Trust
Solitude by Central Chinmaya Mission Trust
Self Discovery by Central Chinmaya Mission Trust
Ramanana Maharishi by K. Swaminathan
Ageless Body, Timeless Mind by Deepak Chopra MD
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra MD
Superconsciousness by J. Donald Walters
Religion of Love by Swami Vivekananda
Cultivating the Energy of Life by Wong/Liu
Sufism by William Staddart
Who moved my cheese by Dr. Spencer Jahnson
Chicken Soup of the Soul by Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen
Deserts of Desolation by Abir Bazaz
PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT BOOKS
Mental Fitness by Tom Wujec
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie
How to develop self confidence and influence people by public speaking by Dale Carnegie
The secrets of Palmistry by Prof. Dayanand
The Secrets of Relaxation by Marianna Kohler
Practical Hypnotism by Narayan Dutta
LITERARY FACETDr. Husaini has a literary interest too and has compiled a magazine commemorating the memories of graduation period Nostalgia: A Gift of Memoirs for Friends from Wadura Agriculture College (http://www.scribd.com/full/33996843?access_key=key-2ovcaay0cjqmtf6w6wv2; http://www.scribd.com/doc/33996843/Nostalgia-Amjad-Husaini). He regularly writes on different social issues pertaining to the current socio-economic development and gender equality (http://www.indianmuslimobserver.com/2013/01/analysis-society-media-sex-…, http://www.indianmuslimobserver.com/2012/09/an-open-letter-to-all-india… ).