Aurpita Rani Paul, MS student in the Department of Life Sciences at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB), has been awarded the National Science and Technology (NST) Fellowship 2025-2026 under the Food and Agricultural Science category.

The NST Fellowship is awarded by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Government of Bangladesh to selected student researchers based on scientific merit and relevance to national research priorities, particularly in food security, agriculture, and climate resilience.

Aurpita’s research proposal, titled “Improving Heat Tolerance in Rice Variety (Oryza sativa) through CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Knockout of HTA1 Gene,” is being conducted under the supervision of Dr. Sabrina M Elias, Associate Professor, Department of Life Sciences.

The research focuses on CRISPR/Cas9 genome-editing to investigate the functional role of the HTA1 gene in rice under heat stress conditions. The study is designed to evaluate gene knockdown effects on thermal stress response in Oryza sativa, with application relevance to climate stress adaptation in rice cultivation systems.

Dr. Elias supervised the academic development and technical framing of the research proposal within the Life Sciences program at IUB, supporting its submission for national-level competitive funding. The original full research study is being supported by the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences, a project granted to Dr. Elias.

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