CURRICULUM VITA

 

Om Parkash (Dhankher)

Assistant Professor

Department of Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences

Adjunct Faculty, Plant Biology Graduate Program

University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01002

Tel: (413) 545-0062 (Office); (413) 545-5231(Lab)

E-mail: parkash@psis.umass.edu

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Education

Ph. D., Plant Molecular Biology, Department of Biological Sciences, Durham University, Durham, England (U.K.) 1998. Research topic: Molecular characterization of stress- induced genes (heat shock and wounding) in pea and chickpea. Major Professor: John A. Gatehouse.

 

M. Phil., Biochemistry and Genetics, Department of Botany, Kurukshetra University (India) 1988. Research topic: Effect of salinity on seed storage proteins in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). Major Professor: N.K. Matta.

 

M. Sc., Botany (Plant Physiology, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry and Ecology) Kurukshetra University (India) 1987.

 

B. Sc. (Medical), Majors: Botany, Zoology, and Chemistry; Maharishi Dayanand University (India) 1985.

 

Research Experience: 11 years

  1. Assistant Professor (November 2004- present), Department of Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Teaching Plant Molecular Biology, genetics and Phytoremediation.
  2. Assistant Research Scientist (January 2003 – Nov. 2004), Dept. of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, with Prof. Richard B. Meagher, working on project titled “Phytoremediation of heavy metals by genetically engineered plants."
  3. Senior Postdoctoral Research Associate (July 1998 - December 2002), Dept. of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, with Prof. Richard B. Meagher, worked on project titled “Phytoremediation of heavy metals by genetically engineered plants."
  4. Postdoctoral research Associate (January 1998 - June 1998), Dept. of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens. Worked on a project titled “Phytoremediation of organic pollutants.”
  5. Commonwealth Research Fellow (October 1994 - December 1997), Department of Biological Sciences, Durham University, Durham, England (U.K.), worked for Ph.D. thesis “Molecular characterization of stress- induced genes (heat shock and wounding) in pea and chickpea.”
  6. Junior Research Fellow (July1987- December 1988), Department of Botany, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, India, worked for M.Phil. dessertation “Effect of salinity on seed storage proteins in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.).”

 

Teaching Experience: 9 years

  1. Assistant Professor, Department od Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. October 2004- present.
  2. Assistant Professor, Department of Botany, A.I.J.H.M College, Maharishi Dayanand University, India. Taught undergraduate courses in Molecular Biology, Plant Physiology, Genetics, and Biochemistry and Botany for 6 years from September 1988- September 1994. Each year I taught 4 courses from junior to senior level and there were more than 400 undergraduate students.
  3. Teaching Assistant, Department of Biological Sciences, Durham University, Durham (U.K). Taught undergraduate laboratory classes in Plant Molecular Biology and Biochemistry for 2.5 years from January 1995 to June. 1997.

 

Awards:

  1. Award of Excellence in recognition of Outstanding Research Performance and presentation before the Division of Environmental Chemistry at the 225th National Meeting of American Chemical Society, New Orleans, March 26. 2003.
  2. Best poster award at an international conference "Heavy Metals in Plants: Ecosystem to Biomolecules" held at University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA, Sept. 29-Oct. 2, 2002.
  3. Best poster award at the annual research poster competition at biological sciences, Durham University, Durham, England, May, 1996.
  4. Commonwealth Scholarship award by Commonwealth Commission London (U.K.), October 1994 to December 1997. (Commonwealth Scholarship is very prestigious and highly competitive)
  5. Junior Research fellow award, Department of Atomic Energy, Atomic Energy Commission, Govt. of India; July 1987 to June 1988.

 

Significant Achievements:

I have developed a first transgenic system for arsenic remediation. This work is just a beginning as compared to the significant potential of engineered plants to clean up arsenic contaminated soil and water. This research was published in a high profile journal Nature Biotechnology. My research work on arsenic phytoremediation was discussed and written by other researchers in many journals. It was in headline news in more than 1000 national and international newspapers (e.g. USA Today, Salt Lake Tribune, Try-City Herald, Augusta Chronicles, Sun Sentinels (USA), The Ottawa Citizen (Canada), Le Monde (France), Indian Express, Central Chronicles (India) etc.) and science magazines (e.g. The Scientist, National Geography, Science Daily, MIT Technology Review, Geotime, La Recherche (France), Down to Earth, Terragreen etc.). It was also featured in headlines on National Geographic Channel, ABC (Australian Broadcast Corporation), Reuters, Science News bulletin Indian TV etc.

 

Research Publications

(Peer reviewed)

  1. Om Parkash Dhankher and J.A. Gatehouse. Tissue-specific and developmental regulation of stress-induced Pisum sativum HSP70 promoter in transgenic tobacco. Physiol. Mol. Biol. Plants 10(1): 49-58 (2004) (with cover page).
  2. Yujing Li, Om Parkash Dhankher, Laura Carreira, David Lee, Julian Schroeder, Rebecca Balish, and Richard B. Meagher. Overexpression of phytochelatin synthase in Arabidopsis leads to enhanced tolerance to arsenic and cadmium sensitivity. Plant Cell Physiology 45(12): 1787-1797 (2004).
  3. Anne Marie, Om Parkash Dhankher, Bonnie McCaig and Richard B. Meagher. Ancient classes of plant metallothioneins bind nutrient and toxic metals differentially. Plant Mol. Biology, 2005 (in press)
  4. Om Parkash Dhankher, Barry P. Rosen, Mark Fuhrmann and Richard B. Meagher. Increased cadmium tolerance and accumulation by plants expressing bacterial arsenate reductase. New Phytologist 159(2): 431-441 (2003).
  5. Om Parkash Dhankher and J.A. Gatehouse. Non-systemic induction of polyphenol oxidase in pea and chickpea after wounding. Physiol. Mol. Biol. Plants 9: 125-129 (2003).
  6. Om Parkash Dhankher, Yujing Li, Barry P. Rosen, Jin Shi, David Salt, Julie F. Senecoff, Nupur A. Sashti and Richard B. Meagher. Engineered tolerance and hyperaccumulation of arsenic in plants by combining arsenate reductase and g-glutamylcysteine synthetase expression. Nature Biotechnology 20(11): 1140-1145 (2002).
  7. Om Parkash Dhankher, J.E. Drew and J.A. Gatehouse: Characterization of a pea hsp70 gene which is both developmentally and stress regulated. Plant Molecular Biology 34: 345-352 (1997).
  8. Om Parkash Dhankher and N.K. Matta: Effect of salinity on storage proteins of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) seeds. J. Plant Science Research 8: 74-76 (1992).
  9. Om Parkash Dhankher, Krishna Kumari and N.K. Matta: Qualitative and quantitative studies on seed protein fractions of Vigna unguiculata L.Walp. J. Plant Science Research 6:75-79 (1990).

 

(Book Chapters and Conference Proceedings)

  1. Om Parkash Dhankher, Yujing Li, Andrew C.P. Heaton and Richard B. Meagher. Strategies for phytoremediation of mercury and arsenic. In: Remedial Science and Technology for Subsurface Contamination. Eds. Zachary and Fryberger, American Chemical Society Journal. 2003.
  2. Om Parkash Dhankher and Richard B. Meagher. Strategies for phytoremediation of mercury and arsenic. 225th American Chemical Society’s Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP) symposium proceedings. pp 1077-1082 (2003).
  3. Om Parkash Dhankher, Jason L. Tucker, Valentine A. Nzengung, and N. Lee Wolfe. Isolation, purification and partial characterization of plant dehalogenase-like activity from waterweed (Elodea canadensis). In: Phytoremediation and innovative strategies for specialized remedial applications. eds: Leesan and Alleman, vol. 6, pp 145-150 (1999).
  4. Richard B. Meagher, Andrew C.P. Heaton, Aaron Smith and Om Parkash Dhankher. Pilot Strategies for Phytoremediation of Mercury and Arsenic. Organization and Economic Cooperation Development (OECD) 2004 (Submitted)

 

Recently Submitted and in Preparation

  1. Om Parkash Dhankher, Barry P. Rosen, Richard B. Meagher. Enhanced arsenic uptake in Arabidopsis plants by suppressing endogenous arsenate reductase AtACR2 gene. (Submitted to Nature Biotechnology).
  2. Om Parkash Dhankher and Richard B. Meagher: Overexpression of synthetic mouse metallothionein (mMT2) gene under leaf specific promoter leads to phytosequestration of mercury and cadmium metal ions in Arabidopsis thaliana leaf tissues. (In Preparation).
  3. Yujing Li, Om Parkash Dhankher, Laura Carreira, Rebecca S. Balish and Richard B. Meagher. Arsenic and mercury resistance and cadmium sensitivity in Arabidopsis plants expressing bacterial g-glutamylcysteine synthetase. (Submitted to Plant Physiol.).
  4. Om Parkash Dhankher and J.A. Gatehouse: Isolation of wound-induced cDNAs in pea by PCR Select Subtraction Hybridization method. (in preparation).

 

Abstracts: 13 research abstracts published in various international conference proceedings as shown below.

 

Conference presentations:

(Invited Speaker)

1.      Om Parkash Dhankher and Richard B. Meagher. Arsenic hyperaccumulation in transgenic Arabidopsis by suppressing an endogenous arsenate reductase (AtACR2). Plant Biology 2004 (American Society for Plant Biologist) Orlando, Florida (USA) July 25-30, 2004.

2.      Om Parkash Dhankher and Richard B. Meagher. Phytoremediation of Arsenic- A Biotechnological Approach. University of Georgia Plant Center Symposium, Amicalola Falls, Georgia, October 29-30, 2003.

3.      Om Parkash Dhankher. Developing Strategies for Arsenic Phytoremediation. Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, India, September 7, 2003.

4.      Om Parkash Dhankher. Phytoremediation of Arsenic- A Biotechnological Approach. Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak, India, September 11, 2003.

5.      Om Parkash Dhankher and Richard. B. Meagher. Engineered Phytoremediation of Arsenic: Enhancing arsenic uptake in plants by controlling endogenous arsenate reductase. Plant Biology 2003 (American Society for Plant Biologist) Honolulu, Hawaii (USA) July 25-30, 2003.

6.      Om Parkash Dhankher and Richard B. Meagher. Strategies for phytoremediation of mercury and arsenic. 225th American Chemical Society (ACS) annual meeting, New Orleans, LA (USA) March 22-27, 2003.

7.      Om Parkash Dhankher and J.A. Gatehouse: A study of the kinetics and tissue-specificity of stress-induced gene expression using reporter gene constructs in transgenic plants. Society for Experimental Biology (SEB) Annual Meeting; April 7-11, 1997; University of Kent, Canterbury (U.K.).

  1. Om Parkash Dhankher: Heat Shock Proteins and Abiotic Stresses. Plant Molecular Biology Forum Mini Symposium. November 24, 1995; Scottish Crop Research Institute, Dundee, Scotland (U.K.).

 

(Poster Presentations)

9.      Om Parkash Dhankher and Richard B. Meagher. Arsenic hyperaccumulation in transgenic Arabidopsis by suppressing an endogenous arsenate reductase (AtACR2). Plant Biology 2004 (American Society for Plant Biologist) Orlando, Florida (USA) July 25-30, 2004.

10.  Om Parkash Dhankher and Richard. B. Meagher. Engineered Phytoremediation of Arsenic: Enhancing arsenic uptake in plants by controlling endogenous arsenate reductase. Plant Biology 2003 (American Society for Plant Biologist) Honolulu, Hawaii (USA) July 25-30, 2003.

11.  Om Parkash Dhankher, Yujing Lee, Barry P. Rosen, David Salt and Richard B. Meagher. Engineered tolerance and hyperaccumulation of arsenic in plants: Combining arsenate reductase and g-glutamylcysteine synthetase. 9th New Phytologist Symposium "Heavy Metals in Plants: from ecosystems to biomolecules", University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (USA) 29 September- 1st October 2002.

12.  Om Parkash Dhankher, Yujing Lee, Barry P . Rosen, David Salt and Richard B. Meagher. Resistance and accumulation of arsenic by plants expressing bacterial arsenate reductase and g-glutamylcysteine synthetase. 10th IAPTC&B Congress "Plant Biotechnology and Beyond", Orlando, Florida (USA), June 23-28, 2002.

13.  Om Parkash Dhankher, Yujing Lee, Barry P. Rosen, David Salt and Richard B. Meagher. Phytoremediation of arsenic contaminated soils. Plant Biology 2001 (American Society for Plant Biologist), Providence, Rhode Island (USA), July 21-25, 2001.

14.  Om Parkash Dhankher, Barry P. Rosen and Richard B. Meagher. Engineering the phytoremediation of arsenic contaminated soil. 11th International conference on Arabidopsis Research, University of Wisconsin, Madison (USA), June 24-28, 2000.

15.  Om Parkash Dhankher: IBC 4th Annual international conference on “Phytoremediation”, June 23-25, 1999, Toronto (Canada) (Attended).

16.  Om Parkash Dhankher, Jason L. Tucker, Valentine A. Nzengung, and N. Lee Wolfe: Isolation, purification and partial characterization of plant dehalogenase-like activity from waterweed (Elodea canadensis). 5th International In Situ and on site Bioremediation Symposium, San Diego, California (USA), April 19-22, 1999. Invited by US EPA to present my research work.

  1. Om Parkash Dhankher and N. Lee Wolfe: Isolation, purification and characterization of plant dehalogenase involved in Phytoremediation of chlorinated solvents. IBC 3rd international conference on “Phytoremediation”, June 1998, Houston, Texas (USA).
  2. Om Parkash Dhankher and J.A. Gatehouse: A study of the kinetics and tissue-specificity of stress-induced gene expression using reporter gene constructs in transgenic plants. Society for Experimental Biology (SEB) Annual Meeting; April 7-11, 1997; University of Kent, Canterbury (U.K.).
  3. Om Parkash Dhankher, J.E. Drew and J.A. Gatehouse: Characterization of a pea hsp70 gene which is both developmentally and stress regulated. Society for Experimental Biology (S.E.B.) conference on "Control of Plant Development: Genes and Signals". July 21-25, 1996; University College Dublin, Ireland.
  4. Om Parkash Dhankher, J.E. Drew and J.A. Gatehouse: Cloning, isolation and characterization of a developmentally and stress regulated pea hsp70 gene. Cold Spring Harbor Conference on "Molecular Chaperones & heat shock response"; May 1-5,1996; Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York (USA).
  5. Om Parkash Dhankher, Krishna Kumari and N.K. Matta: Qualitative and quantitative studies on seed protein fractions of Vigna unguiculata L.Walp. International Conference on Plant sciences and its relevance to future. March 7-11, 1988, New Delhi, India.

 

Patents: 1

 

Professional Organization Memberships

  1. Member American Society of Plant Biologist (ASPB), USA.
  2. Member American Chemical Society (ACS), USA (2003-2004)
  3. Member Arsenic Study Group, United States Geological Survey (USGS) (http://wwwbrr.cr.usgs.gov/Arsenic/memdirectory.htm#Dnonusgs).
  4. Member Society for Science and Environment, India
  5. Member Society of Experimental Biology (SEB), UK (1996-1998).

 

Professional Services:

  1. Editor, International Journal of Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants, published by The Society of Green Word, India.
  2. Member, Search Committee for hiring Medical Entomologist at the department of Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
  3. Member, Graduate Admission Committee, Plant Biology Program, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
  4. Member, Graduate Policy Committee, Department of Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
  5. Reviewer for New Phytologist, Archives of Toxicology, Australian Journal of Plant Physiology (Functional Plant Biology) and Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants journals. Reviewed several research manuscripts for these journals.
  6. Served as a permanent member on several committees such as Admission, Scientific Instrument purchase, Career Advisory committee etc. at A.I.J.H. College, Rohtak, India.

 

Grants: