Santosh Kumar

Santosh Kumar has extensive work experience in the field of plant science and biotechnology. Santosh is currently the Chief Executive Officer & Founder of WOODSPecker, a position they have held since January 2022. Prior to that, they worked as a Research Scientist at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center starting in September 2020. Santosh also has experience as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Missouri-Columbia, where they focused on the study of legume secondary metabolite biosynthesis. Santosh was involved in researching the presence and effects of antinutrients called saponins in beans and other pulses. Before that, they worked as a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Kentucky, where they conducted projects related to natural product biosynthesis and their applications. Santosh'sresearch involved transcriptome and metabolome analysis, as well as the characterization of genes associated with target compounds. Prior to that, Santosh was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institute of Plant Genome Research, where they focused on Catharanthus biotechnology.

Santosh Kumar completed their Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture and Animal husbandry, with a focus on farm and dairy management, from CS Azad University of Agriculture & Technology in the years 1996 to 2000. Santosh then pursued a Master's degree in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, with a specific focus on fungal biotechnology, from Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology from 2001 to 2003. Santosh Kumar furthered their education by obtaining a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering of plant natural product biosynthesis from the National Institute of Plant Genome Research between the years 2003 and 2009.