Kumar Shrestha, Phd. Email & Phone Number

Lincoln, Nebraska, United States

- Identified bioactive compounds (bioinsecticides) from plants (sorghum/wheat) against fall armyworms/sugarcane aphids/hessian fly through metabolomics analysis and characterize its function in lab and greenhouse bioassay.- Extensive experience growing crops in controlled environments (growth chambers and greenhouse) and optimizing plant production. Skilled in phenotyping workflows for transgenic and breeding lines, with expertise in high-throughput phenotyping, including hyperspectral imaging.- Strong knowledge in designing and implementing insect/pest bioassay experiments In planta (in vivo) and artificial diet bioassays (in vitro). Managing, conducting and troubleshooting bioassays in lab and greenhouse. - Mining and analysis of big data sets of plant metabolomics and transcriptomics to identify bio-compounds for insect management, published 1 and 1 under peer review and 2 ongoing.- Developed a collaborative and interdisciplinary project combining phenomics and genomics to assess fall armyworm (FAW) damage on maize and submitted it to the UNL Postdoc fellowship (short-listed as top 5 project).

Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States

During my PhD I worked on six different projects to discover the genetic mechanisms underlying sorghum plant resistance to sugarcane aphid (SCA) infestation. I worked at the Huang lab of Agriculture Research Station, USDA, Stillwater, Oklahoma.• Conducted innovative lab trials to evaluate molecular, physiological and biochemical basis of host plant resistance to hemipteran insects through transcriptomics, phytohormone profiling and pest bioassay. Studied insect behavior and biology in response to different bioinsecticide treatments and transgenic plants.• Strong scientific data analytical skills and applied knowledge in statistics, data mining, R, JMP for interpreting results.• Developed two projects on transcriptomics study to identify the defense mechanism of sorghum genotypes against hemipteran insect. Conducted experimental design, sample collection, RNA extraction and library preparation.• Expertise on NGS data analysis (quality control (FASTQC), pre-processing (TRIMMOMATIC), mapping (HISAT2/BWA-MEM), differential expression (EdgeR/DESeq2), PCA and WGCNA, functional analysis (GO and KEGG), and visualization (Heatmap, Venn Diagram, UpsetR, Treemap and Scatterplot).• Identified a resistance protein through QTL analysis and generated transgenic Arabidopsis lines to characterize the role of a protein against aphid.• Managed and prioritized multiple projects (independent and collaborative) at same time. Completed 6 projects and published 4 peer-reviewed manuscripts as a primary author and other 2 in progress.• Communicated research findings effectively to collaborative research groups and international-level conferences.

Pine Bluff, Arkansas, United States

During my Masters, I worked on CRISPR/Cas9 mediated editing of lignin biosynthesis genes in rice project.- Used CRISPR/Cas9 system to generate transgenic rice plants with edited lignin genes (HCT and COMT)- Transgenic rice lines showed decreased lignin content; these lines can be used in breeding to develop improved lines for biofuel production from rice straw

Sindhuli District, Nepal

During this period I was teaching the courses on Intermediate of Science in Agriculture (ISc.Ag) and Plant Junior Technical Assistant (PJTA) students and additionally doing the administration job. This position helped me to garner the experience of handling the institution, conducting research, motivating and mobilizing students.

Phd In Plant Science, Bioinformatics And Molecular Biology, A

Bioinformatics Graduate Certificate Degree, Bioinformatics, A

Activities and Societies: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, OSUIn this certificate program, I took 16 hours of graduate.

Master Of Science In Agriculture, Biotechnology, A

Bachelor'S Degree, Agriculture, General, A