Meenu Kapoor

Biography

Dr. Meenu Kapoor did her M.Sc. in Plant Molecular Biology from Delhi University, South Campus. She then moved to Japan in 1992 where she completed her Ph.D. at the Center for Gene Research under the guidance of Prof. Masahiro Sugiura at Nagoya University. Thereafter, she joined the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) in 1997 where she worked as Research Scientist in the Center of Excellence Project at the National Institute of Agro-biological Sciences (NIAS) at Tsukuba Science City near Tokyo. While in NIAS, she characterized the role of a floral homeotic gene which could be used for improving the morphology of flowers (patents granted in United States, Australia, Europe and Japan). Since 2004, she is working in the School of Biotechnology and her research interests lie in epigenetic gene regulatory mechanisms and in elucidating the functions of the core components of the DNA methylation machinery in Oryza sativa (Rice) and the Bryophyte, Physcomitrella patens using gene silencing methodology. Research work in her lab is funded by grants from Government of India: Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Council for Science and Industrial Research (CSIR).

Research Interest

Epigenetic Mechanisms of Gene Regulation