Professor Abdullah Makhzoum received his PhD from the University of Tours in France, and completed his postdoctoral fellowship as well visitor Scientist at Western University in Ontario, Canada. Abdullah has published numerous research papers, chapters and reviews, and he is now working as an associate professor in the department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology at BIUST University. His research interests include most aspects of plant biotechnology and its applications such as plant secondary metabolites, plant molecular pharming, phytoremediation and Plant Bioinformatics.

Professor Kathleen Hefferon received her PhD from the Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Cornell University. Kathleen has published several research papers, chapters and reviews, and has written three books. Kathleen is the Fulbright Canada Research Chair of Global Food Security and has been a visiting professor at the University of Toronto over the past year. Her research interests include virus expression vectors, food security agricultural biotechnology and global health. Kathleen lives in New York with her husband and two children.