Mst Tamima Sultana
Mst Tamima Sultana
Genome Science and Technology (GST)
Sultana is a PhD student in the Genome Science and Technology program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
During her graduate research, she worked on improving potato drought tolerance by CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing targeting the CYP707A gene involved in the abscisic acid (ABA) catabolism pathway.
After completing her M.S., Sultana worked as a Research Assistant in the Plant Breeding and Biotechnology Laboratory, University of Dhaka. She also co-authored manuscripts and grants and mentored M.S. students in the laboratory and data analysis.
Afterward, she joined Siddheswari Girls College, Bangladesh, as a Lecturer in Botany and taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses, including Genetics, Plant Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Microbiology, Biostatistics, and other areas of plant science.
In addition to her research and teaching experience, Sultana has been engaged in scientific training and outreach. She was a trainer in CRISPR-Cas9 genome-editing workshops organized by the Bangladesh Society of Microbiology and has attended international training workshops on molecular biology, genetic engineering, and recombinant protein expression at South Asian University, New Delhi, India.
Sultana has presented her research in several national and international scientific conferences like International Symposium on One Health-One World, International Conference on Biotechnology in Sustainable Development, International Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology Conference, etc. Her research presentations have been on topics such as CRISPR-Cas9-mediated genome editing for drought tolerance and genome-wide analysis of plant gene families.
She received the National Science and Technology Fellowship, the Kabi Sufia Kamal Hall Trust Fund Scholarship, and the University of Dhaka merit scholarship based on academic performance.
Education
Sultana completed her B.S. and M.S. in Botany from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, with a focus on Plant Molecular Biology in her M.S.
Research
Sultana’s research interests focus on plant functional genomics, genome engineering, and synthetic biology, with a broader aim of understanding and modifying plant traits through molecular and genetic approaches.
Her previous research has focused primarily on plant responses to abiotic stress and on using genome-editing and bioinformatics tools to study stress-response genes.
During her M.S., she worked on developing drought-tolerant potato using CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing.
Her research focused on CYP707A, a gene involved in abscisic acid (ABA) catabolism, to change ABA regulation and improve plant responses to drought stress. This work provided her with experience in genome editing, molecular cloning, plant tissue culture, Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation, molecular analysis, and plant genotyping and phenotyping.
Her further research has expanded into functional and comparative genomics, especially genome-wide identification and characterization of plant gene families and their responses to environmental stresses.
Sultana has gained hands-on experience in handling transcriptomic data (RNA-Seq), gene expression analysis, phylogenetics, promoter and cis-regulatory element analysis, gene duplication and synteny analysis, and other bioinformatic approaches to identify and characterize candidate genes involved in plant stress responses.
She conducted greenhouse stress experiments and qRT-PCR to study and validate gene-expression patterns. Now, she wants to build on this background in plant synthetic biology and advanced genome engineering. She is particularly interested in applying genome editing, gene regulation, and synthetic biology strategies to understand gene function and engineer valuable traits in plants. In the end, I would like to combine molecular, genomic and computational approaches in an effort to better understand plant biology and contribute to the development of improved crop traits.