Algae and Algal Metabolites Emerging Applications, Trends and Prospects

Dr. Harish is a faculty member at the Department of Botany, Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur, India. He has completed three major research projects sponsored by UGC, DST, and CEFIPRA (Indo-French joint grant). With over 100 publications (impact factor ~300, 4,000+ citations), he also holds two Indian and four German patents. He was also awarded an INSAVisiting Scientist Fellowship. He serves as editor for five international journals and books, is an active member of several academic bodies, and has visited France and Switzerland for academic purposes. He works at the interface of molecular biology, algal biotechnology, and nanoscience to tackle sustainability and environmental health challenges. He has demonstrated algae’s potential in heavy-metal remediation through the discovery of a nickel-hyperaccumulating alga, advanced conservation genomics of the endangered Commiphora wightii , and explored nanoparticle ecotoxicology with implications for environmental safety. His work expands into phyco-nanotechnology, algal lipid production for biofuels, and metabolic engineering of highvalue pigments, including astaxanthin and fucoxanthin. By linking fundamental mechanisms, including heterocyst differentiation in Nostoc sp., with translational applications, he has developed a research vision that integrates ecology, molecular science, and innovation.

Prof. Saheed Sabiu is a Professor and leads the Computational and Systems Biology Research Group at the Durban University of Technology, South Africa. The Group bioprospects for new chemical entities (NCE) and active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) against communicable and noncommunicable diseases for new small molecule targets discovery. He has authored over 100 scholarly papers (articles and book chapters) and 1 edited book to his credit, actively reviewing for more than 20 journals in his field and serving as an Academic Editor in six international journals. He has mentored several postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Besides being an NRF (National Research Foundation) C1-rated researcher, he is a member of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Focus Group on Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPD). In 2024, he was announced as a finalist nominee for the South African National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) awards.