I have working experience in plant molecular biology since a decade. My career goals focuses on the development of climate adaptive crops by the utilization of eco-friendly genetic engineering approaches. In my earlier research career at NIBGE and BTI-Cornell University USA, I developed and characterized the expression of vegetative insecticidal protein (Vip3Aa gene – Bt Toxin) in transgenic plants as well as In vitro purified biopesticides to combat cotton bollworms and RNAi based gene silencing for insect proteases (Cathepsins) in aphids. Furthermore, I have expertise in the tissue culturing of various crops (Cotton, Tobacco, Potato & Arabidopsis), bioinformatics analysis, mathematical modeling, and statistical analysis using MS-Excel, SAS, SPSS and R-Studio. Before joining the CAS-AFS, I worked in the Department of Biotechnology & Bioinformatics, Government College University Faisalabad, as a visiting faculty (Assistant Professor) and taught various courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Currently at CAS-AFS, I am working on the genome editing of vegetable crops by using CRISPR/Cas9 system on Soybean, Chilies, Tomato and Potato crops to make them resistant to various biotic and abiotic stresses and enhanced nutritional output in existing harsh climate.

Publications

(1). Marghoob, M. U., Nawaz, A., Ahmad, M., Waheed, M. Q., Khan, M. H., Imtiaz, M., Islam, E.U., Imran, A., Mubeen, F. “Assessment of Halotolerant Bacterial and Fungal Consortium for Augmentation of wheat in Saline Soils”. Frontiers in Microbiology, vol. 14, 1207784, 2023.https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1207784
(2). Nazish, T., Arshad, M., Jan, S.U., Javaid A., Khan, MH., Naeem, MA., Babar, M. & Ali, M., “Transporters and transcription factors gene families involved in improving nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and assimilation in rice (Oryza sativa L.)” Transgenic Research, vol. 31, pp. 23–42, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11248-021-00284-5
(3). MH. Khan, Z. Mukhtar, M. Arshad, M. Sarwar, S. Asad, “Development and evaluation of synthetic vip3A gene in transgenic cotton for protection against chewing insect pests” International Journal of Agriculture and Biology, vol. 25(1), pp. 211-221, 2021. https://doi.10.17957/IJAB/15.1658
(4). MH. Khan, G. Jander, Z. Mukhtar, M. Arshad, M. Sarwar, S. Asad, “Comparison of in vitro and in planta toxicity of Vip3A for lepidopteran herbivores”, Journal of Economic Entomology, vol. 113(6), pp. 2959-2971, 2020.https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/toaa211