This book delves into the biotechnological applications of Quorum sensing (QS)- a peculiar gene-regulatory process of some microorganisms. Quorum Sensing allows a large bacterial population to work together in a coordinated manner to carry out metabolic activities, which individual bacterium cannot. The different chapters describe how, associating bioremediation process with energy generation is an economical proposal, for reducing pollution and managing biowastes.
The book discusses how QS can be exploited for biotechnological applications in generating bioproducts, bioenergy, bioremediation, biosensors, health and agricultural activities. It further highlights how QS is becoming an integral part of synthetic biology for genetic circuits for producing: (i) novel products, (ii) biosensors, (iii) bioactive molecules, etc. The book is divided into different sections for a clear understanding of the applicability of QS in, the Environment, Energy,Agriculture and Health sectors.
Dr. Vipin Chandra Kalia is a Professor at the Molecular Biotechnology Lab, Department of Chemical Engineering, Konkuk University, Seoul, Korea. He has been an emeritus scientist and ex-chief scientist at Microbial Biotechnology and Genomics, CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi. He obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Genetics from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi.
He was elected as fellow of the Association of Microbiologists of India (FAMI), the National Academy of Sciences (FNASc), and the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (FNAAS).
His main areas of research are microbial biodiversity, genomics and evolution, bioenergy, biopolymers, antimicrobials, quorum sensing, and quorum quenching. He has published over 100 papers in scientific journals such as (1) Nature Biotechnology, (2) Biotechnology Advances, (3) Trends in Biotechnology, (4) Critical Reviews in Microbiology, (5) Bioresource Technology, (6) the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, (7) PLoS ONE, (8) BMC Genomics, (9) Gene, and (10) the Annual Review of Microbiology. He has an h index of 32 and an i10 index of 71. He has edited 3 books: Quorum sensing versus quorum quenching: A battle with no end in sight (2015, Springer India), and Microbial Factories Vol 1 and 2 (2015).
He is currently the editor-in- chief of the Indian Journal of Microbiology and editor of (1) PLoS ONE, (2) the Journal of Microbiology & Biotechnology (Korea), (3) Applied Biochemistry & Biotechnology (USA), (4) International Scholarly Research Notices (Energy), (5) Dataset Papers in Science (Microbiology), and (6) the Journal of Molecular and Genetic Medicine.
He is a life member of the following scientific societies: (1) the Society of Biological Chemists of India (2) the Society for Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology, India; (3) the Association of Microbiologists of India; (4) the Indian Science Congress Association; (5) the BioEnergy Society of India, and (6) the Biotech Research Society of India (BRSI). He is also a member of the American Society for Microbiology.
