| Biography | |
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 Dr. Mahmood-ur- Rahman Ansari Department of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, GC University, Pakistan |
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| Title: Lead (Pb) pollution: a food safety issue | |
| Abstract: Lead (Pb) is a heavy metal which is added into the environment by various anthropogenic activities, e.g. industries. Lead along with industrial waste is accumulated in the soil causing serious ecological risks, as well as human health hazards through consumption of edible crops grown on such Pb-polluted soils. It is needed to inhibit Pb entry into the human food chain by suitable mechanisms and phytoremediation is one of them. The recent developments in phytoremediation of metals from soil are important milestones. Plants uptake metals from soil and accumulate them, so that the soil is detoxified from the harmful effects of metal pollution. There are more than 400 plants which could be used for phytoremediation. In this way, the toxic heavy metals like Pb could be removed from soil by non-food plants so that they will not enter into the food chain. Several amendments may also be used to detoxify the hyperaccumulator plants so that the toxicity of metal could be minimized. In this way the toxicity of metal will not affect the consumer of that plant. In this lecture, Pb toxicity, phytoremediation, detoxification and various food safety issues will be discussed. Keywords: Phytoremediation, Heavy metals, Lead, Hyperaccumulator plants, Soil detoxification | |
| Biography: Dr. Mahmood-ur-Rahman Ansari is Tenured Associate Professor of Molecular Biology and Head, Plant Biotechnology Research Group at Department of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, GC University – Faisalabad, Pakistan. He received his BSc (Hons) in Plant Breeding and Genetics from University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan in 2003 and PhD in Molecular Biology from National Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology, Lahore, Pakistan in 2011. He has published over 60 papers in international peer-reviewed journals in the field of Molecular Biology, Biotechnology, and Bioinformatics. He has also published 12 book chapters and edited 4 books. He is involved in research projects to understand the molecular mechanisms of abiotic stress tolerance in plants. He is member of various national and international professional societies. He is founding member and member Board of Directors of the Pakistan Society for Computational Biology (PSCB). He is also a member of International Cotton Genome Initiative (ICGI) and American Society of Microbiology. | |
