Pan-genomics: Applications, Challenges, and Future Prospects

Debmalya Barh, PhD, holds Master’s and PhD’s degree on Biotechnology and Post-Doc on Bioinformatics. He is honorary Principal Scientist at Centre for Genomics and Applied Gene Technology, Institute of Integrative Omics and Applied Biotechnology, a global platform of multidisciplinary research and advocacy. He has experience with both academic and industrial research and has more than 12 years on bioinformatics and personalized diagnostic/medicine industry experience, with focus on translating academic research into high value commercial products. He has published more than 150 articles in reputed international journals and has edited 15 cutting-edge biotechnology related reference books. He has also co-authored 30+ book chapters. Due to his significant contribution in the field, he has been recognized by Who's Who in the World and Limca Book of Records.

Dr Soares holds a degree in Biomedicine, with special training in Bioinformatics, Master's Degree and PhD in Genetics by Federal University of Minas Gerais – UFMG, the latter with one year of study at the Center for Biotechnology (CeBiTec), Universität Bielefeld. He holds a Post-doctorate in Bioinformatics by UFMG. He was Senior Researcher Bioinformatics at the Central Official Laboratory of the Brazilian Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture (2014-2015). He is currently Professor at Federal University of the Triângulo Mineiro (UFTM) since 2015, Secretary of the Southeastern regional of the Brazilian Society of Genetics (2017-current), Substitute Coordinator of the undergraduate course in Biomedicine at UFTM (2017-current) and Substitute Research and Technology Development Coordinator of UFTM (2017-current). His research interests are molecular genetics, genomic sequencing and comparative genomics of microorganisms, focusing on pan-genomics, genomic plasticity in the identification of islands of pathogenicity and virulence factors, phylogenomics, molecular epidemiology, reverse vaccination and software development.

Sandeep Tiwari works at the Instituto de Ciencias Biologicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Vasco Azevedo is graduated from veterinary school of the Federal University of Bahia in 1986. He obtained his Master (1989) and Ph.D. (1993) degrees in microbial genetics from Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon (INAPG) and Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), France, respectively. He did his Post-doctoral research (1994) at Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. USA. Since 1995, he is a Professor at Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil. In 2004, Prof. Azevedo won the Livre-docência contest at the University of São Paulo, which is considered the best university in Brazil. Livre-docência is a degree awarded by the Higher Education Department of Brazil through a public examination open only to the doctoral degree holders and is a recognition to a superior quality of teaching and research. In 2017, Prof. Azevedo defended his third thesis to become a Doctorate in Bioinformatics from the UFMG. He is a also a Fellow of Brazilian Academy of Sciences. He has published 380 research articles, 3 books, and 29 book chapters. Prof. Azevedo is expert in bacterial genetics, genomics, transcriptome, proteomics, and development of new vaccines and diagnostics against infectious diseases. He is pioneer in genetics of Lactic Acid Bacteria and Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis in Brazil.