Advances in Endophytic Research

Vijay C. Verma, PhD chandravcv@gmail.com Dr. Vijay Verma joined Department of Botany, Banaras Hindu University, India for his PhD, which he obtained in 2009. During his PhD, Dr. Verma explored the endophytic microbes associated with neem plant and their ecological roles for getting inexplicable host-endophyte interactions. He has also investigated the potential of endophytes in production of host-specific compounds and reported for the first time ever that Azadirachtin and Piperine are the two most important molecules that can be exclusively sourced from their respective host and can also be produced by fungal endophytes of the same host plants. He visited Technical University of Dortmund as DAAD fellow, and recently has been recognized as Fast Track Young Scientist by Department of Science and Technology, India. He has published more than 25 publications in the journals of international repute and edited one book. Alan Christopher Gange, PhD a.gange@rhul.ac.uk Prof. Alan Gange obtained his PhD from University of London, UK in 1985. In 1992, he joined the Royal Holloway University of London as lecturer and became professor of microbial ecology in 2007 and currently serving as Head of the Department, School of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London. He has over 30 years of research and teaching experience. He has published more than 100 peer reviewed papers in highly reputed international journals including 'Science'. His research interest is to study the multitrophic interactions which affect the diversity and structure of plant communities. He is specifically interested in how non-pathogenic fungi in plants affect the insects.