Profile Details

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Hire Dr. Balaji V.

United States

USD 300 /hr

AgTech Professional With Over 20 Years of Experience In Industry & Academia Combined | Over 24K Agtech Connections

Profile Summary

Profile: linkedin.com/in/balaji-vasudevan Over 20 years of post-Ph.D. experience (industry and academia combined) in multiple agtech domains: Agrobacterium Biology | Agrobacterium-Plant Interactions | Crop Transformation/GMO | Genome Editing | Cell Biology | Plant Tissue Culture | Disease Diagnostics | Phytopathogen/Plant-Microbial Assay Development | Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions | Plant Pathology | Plant Disease Resistance | Plant Molecular Biology | Gene Silencing via HIGS/VIGS/SIGS | RNAi | Alt. Proteins In Plants | RNA Biopesticides | AgBiologicals |Plant Molecular Farming for Stable and Transient Expression of Value Added Proteins in Plants as Bioreactors | Agtech Innovations Scouting | Agtech Business Market Following | Competitive intelligence My Agtech Background: I have been in agtech for more than 20 years in various domains as detailed below. I am very active in the agtech space. I have over 23 K agtech connections in LinkedIn and a very active linkedin user with more than 5-10 daily posts on average. These help to keep myself updated on the latest and greatest happenings in the agtech landscape/industry I am very active in keeping up with latest agtech technology innovations, business M/A, market scope on top of research activities that I have detailed below. My agtech research expertise/interests/experience/ background are listed below dsRNA/siRNA delivery to plants for crop protection Gene Silencing via HIGS/VIGS/SIGS/RNAi RNA biopesticides Exogenous spray based RNAi for crop protection from fungal and viral diseases AgTech Scouting and Innovations Competitive Intelligence and market landscape Alt. Plant proteins Plant Molecular farming Plant molecular biology ¨ Agrobacterium biology Agrobacterium-plant interactions Crop transformation/plant genetic engineering Genome Editing Vector construction Cell Biology Plant tissue culture Disease Diagnostics Phytopathogen/Plant-Microbial Assay Development Molecular plant-microbe interactions Plant Pathology (viral, bacterial, fungal/oomycete diseases) Biologicals for crop protection 1) Agtech Following: Constantly updating major events and technological breakthroughs in Agtech. I post several articles and agtech industry/academia updates daily in LinkedIn. Please see my postings in linkedin (linkedin.com/in/balaji-vasudevan). I post 5-10 agtech updates on a daily basis in multiple agtech areas (please see agtech research section below) which helps me to keep track of latest and greatest happenings in agrifood tech landscape. This also enables me to help agtech community and companies who are in need of information, agtech innovations, advice, data, literature and market reports. Also shared latest on GMO and gene edited crops used and accepted in Africa (CBSD resistant GM cassava approved by Kenya- https://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/blog/2021/06/kenya-approves-disease-resistant-gmo-cassava/, PBR GM cowpea in Nigeria- https://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/blog/2021/06/nigeria-makes-history-with-gmo-cowpea-rollout/, GM cotton for bollworm resistance - https://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/blog/2020/11/nigerian-farmer-chooses-innovation-for-healthier-crops-better-harvests/, status and portfolio of gene edited crops in Africa - https://crispr-gene-editing-regs-tracker.geneticliteracyproject.org/africa-crops-food/) 2) Agtech Connection: I am connected to several agtech professionals. I have close to 24K agtech connections in LinkedIn. Well connected to Agtech industry leaders (C-suite and Research minds, about 90% of the agtech CEO/CSO/CTO are my connections, eg. Tom Adams, CEO of Pairwise Plants-Gene Editing company; Eric Ward of AgBiome, Agbiologicals company; Adrian Percy, CTO of UPL; John Dombrosky of Oerth Bio, ProTAC company; Matt Crisp of Benson Hill Biosystems, Gene editing/Precision Breeding company), to some reputed names in Academia (eg. Prof. Stanton Gelvin in Agrobacterium/Plant transformation, Prof. Greg Martin in plant pathology, Prof. Kiran Mysore in Non-host disease resistance, Prof. Dan Voytas in Gene editing). In addition, I am also connected and following VC and Investors in agtech. Some of the ventures, I am connected to are FlagShip Pioneering, Pontifax Ag, Deep Science Ventures, S2G ventures, Temasek, Lewis Clark, Fall Line, Cascadia Capital etc. I am also connected to agtech professionals at GF and Gates AgOne. 3) Agtech Research: Technically and intellectually sound in important areas in Agtech as listed below o Worked with 17 crops/vegetables: Soybean, Canola, Corn, Cabbage, Tomato, Pepper, Eggplant, Potato, Sunflower, Cotton, Okra, Urad bean, Mung bean, Rice, Tobacco, Lettuce, Sugar beet, and 3 model plants: Nicotiana benthamiana (Nb), Arabidopsis, Medicago o Development of Nb plants as model/alternate host for Clavibacter bacterial pathogen. This research was Editors pick in Phytopathology journal Editor in Chief’s pick for the March 2011 issue (http://www.apsnet.org/publications/Emails/APSUpdate38.htm#LETTER.BLOCK9). o Research experience on 8 bacterial, 6 viral and 5 fungal/oomycete pathogens across 15 crops/model plants (First to develop wilt & canker disease-resistant transgenic GM tomato and published in the premier journal Transgenic Research and was quoted in multiple international genetic engineering news letters quoted in April 20, 2011 issue of “Crop Biotech Update” (http://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=7676) and April 27, 2011 issue of “ArgenBio” (Argentina Biotech News) (www.argenbio.org/index.php?action=notas&note=5620) (Bacterial and viral pathogens that I have worked finds place in top 10 pathogen list voted by plant bacteriologists and virologists associated with the journal Molecular Plant Pathology as seen in the below link http://www.bspp.org.uk/news/article.php?id=40 o Agrobacterium biology, Agrobacterium-plant interactions o Crop transformation/plant genetic engineering o GM event molecular characterization o Genome Editing o Vector construction o Plant molecular biology o Cell Biology o Plant tissue culture o Disease Diagnostics o Phytopathogen/Plant-Microbial Assay Development o Molecular plant-microbe interactions o Plant Pathology (viral, bacterial, fungal/oomycete diseases) o AgBiologicals for crop protection o dsRNA/DNA/peptide delivery to plants for crop protection o Gene Silencing via HIGS/VIGS/SIGS/RNAi o RNA biopesticides o Alt. Plant proteins o Plant Molecular farming for vaccines, therapeutic proteins and growth factors for cell based meat industry o Competitive Intelligence, agtech innovations and scouting, market landscape 4) Agtech Consulting/Outreach: SAB (Scientific Advisory Board) member for MyoWorks (https://www.myoworks.in/), a cell based meat startup producing scaffolds for cellular agriculture industry. Scientific advisor and consultant for Edison AgroSciences Inc. (1 year) (plant metabolic engineering, https://edisonagrosciences.com/) and Moolec Sciences (5 months) (plant molecular farming for animal protein production in plants, https://moolecscience.com/). Science advisor and consultant for a RNA company in agtech. In talks to advise/consult for couple of agtech companies in plant molecular farming and gene editing. Many invited talks on AgBiotech in Universities, Colleges and research institutes. Recently invited by ASM (American Society for Microbiology) and ASPB (American Society of Plant Biology)/Plantae for advisory talk on opportunities in Agtech and Agri-Foodtech to students in academia aspiring for an entry to agtech industry • Invited SAB (Scientific Advisory Board) member for MyoWorks, a cultivated agtech startup in India • Invited consultant for Agtech companies involved in gene editing, plant molecular farming, crop protection, alt. protein and plant transformation/genetic engineering • Invited speaker for agtech webinars/conference/seminars in Universities, colleges, academic groups 5) Agtech Partnering: Collaborations with national and international scientists. Developed and managed various research projects in industry and academia in world renowned reputed institutes and Universities. Collaborated with other scientists and principal investigators in multi-national and multi-institutional scientific projects as listed below • Partnered with ISU and MSU for disease bioassays to screen for exogenous RNAi based silenced plants resistant/tolerant to plant pathogens/diseases (Between GreenLight Biosciences and University Partners) • Interacted and collaborated in a project on “metabolic engineering of sunflower for rubber production” between Edison AgroSciences and Benson Hill Biosystems • Collaborated with Prof. Stan Gelvin (Purdue University) and served as co-technical lead and subject matter expertise in NSF funded STTR project on “Enhancing Agrobacterium-mediated plant transformation efficiency and quality of transgenic events using plant genes and chromosomal T-DNA launch”. (Betweeen Edison Agrosciences, Inc. and Prof. Stan Gelvin Lab at Purdue University) • Identification of plant genes and factors that play a role in Agrobacterium T-DNA transfer and integration into the plant genome to improve the plant transformation efficiency and overcome the recalcitrance to genetic transformation in economically important industrial crops: cotton, maize, soybean, grapevine etc. (Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation) (Collaborated on an NSF grant with Prof. Stanton B Gelvin, Purdue University, USA) • Generation of transgenic tomato resistant to wilt and canker disease caused by a Gram-positive bacterium Clavibacter michiganensis subsp.michiganensis (Cmm) (Cornell University) (Collaborated on a BARD grant with Dr. Guido Sessa and Prof. Isaac Barash, Tel-Aviv University, Israel) • Transgenic grapevine resistant to crown gall disease caused by Agrobacterium vitis (Cornell University) Collaborated with Prof. Thomas J Burr, Cornell University, USA) • Transcriptome analysis and identification of genes involved in resistance response of tomato to leaf spot disease caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria (Xcv) (Tel-Aviv University) (Collaborated on a BARD grant with Prof. Gregory B Martin, Boyce Thomson Institute, Cornell University, USA) • Molecular dissection of wilt and canker bacterium Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis (Cmm) compatible interaction with tomato (Tel-Aviv University) (Colloborated with Prof. Eichenlaub, University of Bielefeld, Germany and Dr. Naim Iraki, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Biotechnology Center, Bethlehem University) 6) Agtech Innovations: Closely watching technological innovations in the following key areas in Agtech that will help feed 10B people by 2050. They are CRISPR/TALENS/Meganuclease based gene editing, crop transformation, Alternative Proteins/Plant based alternate food, cellular agriculture, fermentation, Precision Ag, Synthetic biology, Biologicals/Biopesticides/Peptide for disease control, Food waste reduction/Delayed senescence, Indoor/Vertical Farming, soil health and others. I have personal research experience in plant transformation, CRISPR gene editing, plant molecular farming for animal proteins and growth factors, plant based foods, synthetic biology, disease resistance, RNA biopesticides, biologicals and peptides for plant health. 7) Agtech Recognition: Nationally and internationally recognized in Agtech field. Published 16 research papers in leading international journals, invited reviewer for 8 journals, scientific editor for 2 journals, grant reviewer, invited speaker and OCM member in agtech conferences. Please see the links below for couple of conferences. Very recently, invited by ASPB/Plantae for an Interview on My Agtech Journey and Career Advice for Young Minds to Enter Agri-Food Tech. Invited by American Society of Microbiology as a speaker for webinar “Career Options in Biotechnology” focused on providing ideas and steps needed for biology graduates to enter industry career. Also invited by academic institutions for several talks on Agtech as a career and its role in food security and sustainability. In addition, I was and I am an active consultant/science advisor for many companies in plant molecular farming, alt. protein, plant transformation, gene editing, molecular breeding with focus on NBTs and plant pathology. Please see featured section in my LinkedIn profile for more agtech recognition Served as peer-reviewer for 8 international journals. Reviewed 12 original research articles submitted for publication in the below mentioned journals ¨ Theoretical and Applied Genetics | Plant Cell Tissue & Organ Culture | In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology – Plant | Plant Cell Reports | International Journal of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry | Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology | Phytoparasitica | Bio-Protocol Editorial board member for 2 scientific journals ¨ Plant Science Journal | Research in Plant Biology Invited speaker and OCM member in agtech conferences. Please see the links below for few conferences https://asm.org/Biographies/A-B/Balaji-Vasudevan,-Ph-D Carrier options in Biotechnology sponsored by ASM (American Society for Microbiology) http://theinterviewportal.com/2020/07/23/plant-scientist-interview-2/ https://crops-agri.foodtechconferences.com/2019/organizing-committee.php (OCM member) https://plantscience.alliedacademies.com/ocm/2020/balaji-vasudevan-green-light-biosciences-inc-usa (OCM and Keynote speaker). https://www.plantsciencecongress.org/spekers.php (Keynote Industrial Speaker). https://coalesceresearchgroup.com/conferences/plantgenomics/committeemembers (OCM member) https://www.apsnet.org/publications/Emails/APSUpdate38.htm https://www.isisn.org/PSJ_Editorial_Board.htm 8) Agtech Work (over 18 years of academia and industry combined in USA, India and Israel) Industry • MyoWorks, India (July 2021 – Present) • Moolec Science, UK (August 2020 – December 2020) • Greenlight Biosciences, Inc. RTP, NC, USA (May 2018 – May 2021) • Edison Agrosciences, Inc. RTP, NC, USA (January 2015 – April 2018) • Cibus UC LLC, San Diego, CA, USA (August 2012 – July 2014) • Metahelix Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd., India (March 2007 – March 2008) Academia • Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, OK, USA (June 2010 – July 2012) • Cornell University, NY, USA (May 2008 – May 2010) • Tel-Aviv University, Israel (November 2003 – February 2007) 9) Publications: 16 research articles in peer-reviewed international journals (viz., Nature Scientific Reports, Plant Cell, Plant Physiology, Plant Journal, Transgenic Research, Phytopathology, MPMI, Journal of Bacteriology, etc.). 8 research articles are on Agrobacterium biology, Agro-plant interaction, transgenic research for trait discovery, development, characterization and functional validation, tissue culture and plant transformation. 9th article on Agrobacterium-plant interaction is being submitted to Nature Communications” 8 articles on molecular plant-microbe interactions and crop disease resistance. 10) Management experience Over 10 years of management experience in industry and academia combined. I managed and trained a team of four in industry which includes research specialist, research associate, scientist/senior scientists. Handled multiple research projects and was responsible for budgeting, hiring and training of research personnel. In academia, I managed and mentored several BS, MS and Ph.D. students and fresh post-doctoral fellows in their research projects 11) Effective communicator – both orally and in written format? Research experience trained me to be an effective communicator. 1) Summarized and dissipated quarterly and yearly research project progress reports to management, presented results as oral power point in internal and external meetings. 2) Contributed and wrote 16 research articles that were published in peer-reviewed internationally reputed journals 3) Participated in several national and international seminars and symposiums and presented my research results and achievements as poster and oral presentation (more than 10 presentations) 4) Invited speaker and OCM member in agtech conferences.

Subject Matter Expertise

• ★ Plant Biotechnology
• ☆ Molecular Biology
• ☆ Clinical Pathology

Services

• Research
• Consulting
• Product Development

Research Market Research, User Research, Fact Checking, Gap Analysis, Gray Literature Search, Systematic Literature Review

Consulting Scientific and Technical Consulting

Product Development Product Evaluation

Work Experience

Plant Biology and Plant Pathology Lead

Greenlight Biosciences

May 2018 - May 2021

Education

PhD

Madurai Kamaraj University

August 1996 - October 2003

Certifications

• Certification details not provided.