Congratulations Moutoshi, for winning highly prestigious Griffith University Ph.D. scholarships, and welcome to the Shiddiky Laboratory at the School of Environment and Science (ESC) and Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre (QMNC). Moutoshi is a collaborative student with Professor Rebecca Ford’s Group within the ESC at Griffith University and Dr. Shamsul Bhuiyan’s team at Sugar Research Australia (SRA), Woodford, Queensland.
Moutoshi Chakraborty was born and raised in Naogaon, Bangladesh, and she graduated from the University of Rajshahi (RU), Bangladesh in 2012 with a B.Sc. in Agriculture (Honours). She completed her M.S. in Genetics and Plant Breeding from Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU). She became interested in the field of molecular biology of plant disease resistance and developing molecular diagnostic methods for the quantification genotyping of plant disease biomarkers. Her M.S. thesis was on the molecular characterization of mutant lines of onion against purple blotch disease using molecular markers, which was supported by the National Science and Technology (NST) Fellowship from the Ministry of Science and Technology of Bangladesh. During this tenure, she was also working as a post-graduate researcher at the Plant Breeding Division of the Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA), investigating mutation-induced cytological aberration, developing a convenient tissue culture protocol for mutated onion lines. She has presented her M.S. research work at the 9th Biennial Conference of Plant Breeding and Genetics Society of Bangladesh (PBGSB) in 2014.
After completing her masters, she worked as a researcher in the Department of Microbiology, Stamford University Bangladesh. She then worked as a Research Assistant at the Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (IBGE) of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University (BSMRAU). This position offered her enormous opportunities to gain hands-on experience in handling microorganisms, developing isolation and preservation protocols for phytopathogen, microbiological investigation, developing molecular diagnostic protocols for diagnosis of plant diseases, screening resistance in cultivars, and bioactive natural compounds. During this time, she received extensive training in both theoretical and practical aspects of modern molecular plant biology, molecular plant genetics, plant breeding, biotechnology, and genetic engineering of plants and microorganisms.
Due to her multi-disciplinary educational background and research experience, Moutoshi was offered a Griffith University scholarship to pursue her Ph.D. study on developing a novel diagnostic device to detect and quantify major sugarcane diseases at the ‘point-of-contact’ on-farm to develop effective management strategies at the early stage of disease infection.
We welcome Moutoshi to our Laboratories and wish her all the very best. We look forward to witnessing her future achievements.