Intellectual Property Issues in Microbiology

Harikesh Bahadur Singh is a Professor at the Department of Mycology and Plant Pathology, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. He has received several national and international awards for his key role in popularizing organic farming and translating agriculturally important microorganisms from lab to land. He also holds 20 U.S. patents, which have been successfully used for the commercial production of biopesticides in several industries in India. Chetan Keswani is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Biochemistry, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. He has a keen interest in regulatory and commercialization issues of agriculturally important microorganisms. He is an elected Fellow of the Linnaean Society of London, UK, and received the Best Ph.D. Thesis Award from the Uttar Pradesh Academy of Agricultural Sciences, India in 2015. He is an editorial board member of several respected agricultural microbiology journals. Surya Pratap Singh is a Professor at the Department of Biochemistry, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. He has worked at AIIMS, New Delhi; the University of Illinois; and John Hopkins Medical Institute, Baltimore, USA. He is a life member of the Endocrine Society, USA. His research team focuses on discovering novel neuroprotective herbal formulations for neurodegenerative diseases. Moreover, he has successfully isolated, formulated and patented various neuroprotective secondary metabolites from medicinal plants.