For the first time, at the 2023 Ekushey Book Fair, a completely new book titled ‘Genome Editing’—written by agricultural scientist Professor Dr. Md. Tofazzal Islam, Fellow of Bangladesh and World Academy of Sciences—will be released. While there are many such books in English, for Bengali speakers in our country, understanding these concepts can be challenging and difficult. Genome editing is a technology that modifies cellular DNA to induce desired traits or changes in living cells. The uniqueness and characteristics of every organism are coded in the cell’s nucleic acids (DNA/RNA). When these codes are changed, the traits of the organism also change. Genome editing is the technology that allows us to manipulate the code of life as precisely as computer software. For the first time, such complex and intricate topics of biotechnology have been made simple and comprehensible in Bengali through the publication of the book “Genome Editing.” The book is available at stalls 134-136 of ‘Matrivasha Prokash’ at the Ekushey Book Fair.
About the Author:
Tofazzal Islam was born on December 20, 1966, in Shashai village, Bijoynagar Upazila, Brahmanbaria district. His father is Md. Bazlur Rahman and his mother is Khaleda Khanam.
Tofazzal Islam graduated first in class both in BSc Ag (Honors) and MSc (Ag) at Bangladesh Agricultural University. He obtained his PhD in Applied Biology from Hokkaido University in Japan. As a fellow—through JSPS, Humboldt, Commonwealth, and Fulbright fellowships—he has worked as a postdoctoral researcher and visiting professor at several renowned universities in Japan, the USA, the UK, and Germany.
Professor Tofazzal is the founding director of the Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (IBGE) at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University. He has authored over 300 research papers published in international scientific journals and books.
Professor Tofazzal gained recognition for identifying the origin of the wheat blast epidemic in Bangladesh and for decoding the genome of jackfruit, the national fruit. He has been pioneering the successful application of the revolutionary, Nobel Prize-winning 2020 CRISPR-Cas genome editing technology in Bangladesh’s agriculture. His team has developed a new technology for rapid detection of the fungus causing wheat blast by using genome-specific primers and CRISPR technology. For his outstanding contributions to biotechnology research, Dr. Islam has received numerous national and international awards.
Professor Tofazzal is a Fellow of the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences, Bangladesh Academy of Agricultural Sciences, The World Academy of Sciences, and the American Phytopathological Society.
He is the chief editor of two book series published by Springer Nature: CRISPR-Cas Methods and Bacilli and Agrobiotechnology. He is also an editor of many journals, including Scientific Reports, Frontiers in Plant Science, and PLOS ONE.
His wife, Dr. Hasna Hena Begum, is a senior specialist at a private organization, and his son, Tahsin Islam Sakif, is studying Computer Science at West Virginia University in the United States.
Source: Collected from the news published by M Abdul Mannan, ZoomBangla
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