Dr. Ravikumar Hosamani, assistant professor in the Department of Biotechnology at the University of Agricultural Sciences in Dharwad, India, visits Iowa State University as part of a 3-month training program. At Iowa State, Dr. Hosamani worked on two different projects in Professor Madan Bhattacharyya’s lab. First, Dr. Hosamani is learning gene-editing technology in soybean. Gene editing technique is a universal method, and after his return, he expects to apply the knowledge and research experience he gained in Bhattacharyya’s lab in editing putative genes that may be involved in hypergravity-induced phenotypes at his home institution. Dr. Hosamani has been working to understand hypergravity’s role in inducing desired novel phenotypes for improving crop plants. Dr. Hosamani plans to take the knowledge and experience learned at Iowa State and apply similar gene-editing techniques to help identify and eliminate specific genes in his research at his home institution. He is working on cloning Arabidopsis nonhost resistance genes in the second project. Dr. Hosamani learns plant gene cloning and plant transformation methodologies in this project. Research experiences gained in both projects are complementary and will assist him in broadening his research area when he returns to India.  

Before accepting an Assistant Professor position at the University of Agricultural Sciences in Dharwad, India, in late 2017, Dr. Hosamani has spent nearly seven years working for NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. During his time at NASA, Dr. Hosamani was a USRA and NASA Postdoctoral Fellow (February 2011 – January 2016) and then a Research Assistant Professor (January 2016 – August 2017).  While working at NASA, Ravikumar’s primary research focused on understanding the effects of altered gravity (micro and hypergravity) using the fruit fly model system.

Dr. Hosamani and six of his colleagues will return to the University of Agricultural Sciences in Dharwad, India, on April 14, 2022. The 3-month training program between the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, and Iowa State University, Ames, is funded by the World Bank-Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) under the National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP) an Institutional Development Plan (IDP) titled “Augmenting Quality and Relevance of Higher Agricultural Education through Enhanced Learning Outcome and Entrepreneurship Development.” The seven young faculty have valued their time and experiences at Iowa State University and want to extend their sincere appreciation to Professor Mahadev Chetti, the Vice-Chancellor, University of Agricultural Sciences, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Global Programs office, and all Iowa State University faculty hosting the seven young faculty.