Postbiotics: Health and Industry

Dr. Dharumadurai Dhanasekaran is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology, Principal Investigator in National Repository for Microalgae and Cyanobacteria—Freshwater (NRMC-F) at Bharathidasan University in Tiruchirappalli, India. His research experience is in the fields of actinobacteriology and mycology. His current research focuses on probiotic microorganisms and postbiotics and microbiome profiling in plant and animal system. He has been awarded an UGC-Raman Post-Doctoral Fellowship and has worked in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Biomedical Sciences at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, USA. He studied the genome properties of probiotic bacteria by whole genome, metagenome sequencing, and formulated probiotic feed supplements for dairy cow. He edited 17 books with international publishers and served as a reviewer, guest editor, and on the editorial boards of national and international journals.

Dr. Prakash M. Halami is a Chief Scientist in Microbiology and Fermentation Technology at CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute in Mysore, India. He has a postgraduate degree in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from the National Centre for Plant Biotechnology, PUSA Institute, IARI in New Delhi, and a doctorate in Biotechnology from the University of Mysore. Dr. Halami also has advanced training in Biotechnology from Kobe University in Japan, conducted doctoral degree research at the University of Frankfurt in Germany, and postdoctoral research at the University of Minnesota, USA, as a Raman Research Fellow. His laboratory investigates the mechanism of food-grade metabolite production by microorganisms using classical microbiology approaches and by using genomic tools, and his research activities include the characterization and transferability of antibiotic resistance genes in probiotic bacteria, development of defined starter cultures, and molecular taxonomy. He also has nearly three decades of R & D experience.