Dr. GAURAV MUDGAL is an Associate Professor in the University Institute of Biotechnology within Chandigarh University, Mohali, Punjab. Previous to this he headed science clusters at Auronya College, Pondicherry and Mangalayatan University, Aligarh. He is a La Caixa fellow, and received his Ph.D. Degree in Molecular Biosciences with the highest distinction from the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain in 2014 with his work on molecular biology of coronavirus-host interactions realized at the CSIC center of excellence -National Center of Biotechnology. He had previously worked as a nationally recruited scientific officer at the CGIAR headquarters of ICRISAT in Hyderabad and had handled many projects related to transgenic crop developments. He is having 16 years of research experience in biotechnology. His area of Expertise includes: Molecular biology of virus-host interactions, plant-microbe interaction, plant and animal biodiversity, underutilized crop translations and bioremediation. He is the author of many publications with the journals like PLOS, MDPI, Nature, Springer, Elsevier and Taylor & Francis and a recipient of a core research grant of 4.3 million INR for his work on DNA barcoding and morphometrics on Indian tardigrades.