2024 Summer Roundtable: Phytochemical Diversity and Significance | Dr. Amit Rai
Pharmacognosy Roundtable
June 7, 2024
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Location
(time is CT) 316 COP and Zoom (Hybrid)
Address
Chicago, IL 60612
The Spring 2024 Pharmacognosy Roundtable
Cost
$0 (free)
Calendar
Download iCal FileThe Summer 2024 Pharmacognosy Roundtable features Dr. Amit Rai from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (UIUC). It involves open discussion with specific and broader questions of pharmacognosy evolving from his presentation topic: "Phytochemical Diversity and Its Significance for Plants and Humans".
Synopsis of the Presentation & Discussion Material. Phytochemicals, as the term implies, are complex chemicals or metabolites that plants produce. Phytochemicals are essential for plants to survive the static and dynamic ecological/environmental challenges, allowing them to adapt to the ever-changing landscape of our planet. Further, phytochemicals are vital bioactive molecules for treating nearly 1/3rd of human diseases. In my presentation, I will delve into the importance of exploring the phytochemical diversity, the recent advancements in hardware and software for metabolome analysis, and the role that comparative genomics and evolutionary analysis could play. Understanding the role of specialized metabolism in plants is key to achieve a sustainable source of phytochemicals as essential medicine for human health.
Prof. Rai is an Assistant Professor of Crop Sciences and affiliate of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at UIUC. His research interest is in phytochemical metabolomics and multi-omics approaches to the biosynthesis of bioactive plant constituents (e.g. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20508-2). His background comes from a PhD. in Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore, working as an non-tenure track Assistant Professor at Chiba University and as a Research Scientist at CSRS, RIKEN, both in Japan. He joined UIUC in 2024.
Date posted
May 29, 2024
Date updated
May 29, 2024
Speakers
