Dr. Pawan Kumar Malhotra is working as Principal Biotechnologist at School of Agricultural Biotechnology, PAU, Ludhiana. Dr. Pawan Kumar Malhotra has joined as Assistant Biotechnologist in School of Agricultural Biotechnology, PAU, Ludhiana on 12/01/2009. He has submitted several competitive research projects as PI to different agencies. He got four research projects and presently one national level collaborative research project. He published more than 25 manscripts including research articles, review papers and book chapters. He teaches UG  and PG courses every year. He guided seven PG student as Major Advisor. He acted as Advisor to the BTech. (Biotechnology Hons.) 4-year program students. He developed course of Ph.D (Biotech.) degree programme. He is convenor of departmental extension committees and member of other committees. He conducted two plant tissue culture training to the farmers of Punjab and other states. He was involved in supply of tissue culture raised plants of new varieties of sugarcane to farmers after multiplication in commercial plant tissue culture unit. He extended  technical guidance to visiting farmers at School of Agricultural Biotechnology regarding various aspects of biotechnology especially micropropagation.

Professional Accomplishments

Education: B.Sc., PAU, Ludhiana (1996); M.Sc., PAU, Ludhiana (1998); Ph.D., PAU, Ludhiana (2002)

Positions held: Senior Biotechnologist, PAU Ludhiana (2020 onwards), Biotechnologist (2009-2020)

Research Interests:

1. Tissue culture and Genetic transformation of crop plants. 
2. Molecular biology 

Research Projects (Ongoing):

1. Genetic transformation of sugarcane and molecular characterization of putative transgenic sugarcane plants having DREB1A gene. 
2. Transgene free gene editing in high value vegetatively propagated crops – Sugarcane and Banana (Funded by DBT)

Research Publications :

1. Sharma Shaweta, Pawan Kumar Malhotra, Meenakshi Goyal, Vishal Sharma, Amandeep Mittal, Inderjit Singh Yadav, Gulzar Singh Sanghera, and Parveen Chhuneja. (2024) “Characterization of sugarcane mutants developed through gamma irradiations for their lignin content and caffeic acid-O-methyl transferase (COMT) gene mutations.” International Journal of Radiation Biology 100, no. 4 : 619-626.
2. Gurupkar Singh Sidhu, Davinder Kumar, Vishal Sharma, Jagveer Singh, Pawan Kumar Malhotra (2024) An Efficient Protocol for Direct in vitro Regeneration in ‘Daisy’ and ‘W. Murcott’: Commercially Important Mandarins. Applied Fruit Science.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10341-024-01140-6. 
3.  A Ghane, PK Malhotra, GS Sanghera, SK Verma, NS Jamwal, L Kashyap, and SH Wani (2024) CRISPR/Cas technology: fueling the future of Biofuel production with sugarcane. Functional & Integrative Genomics 24:205 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10142-024-01487-9 (NAAS 8.9).
4. Pavani G, Malhotra PK, and Verma SK (2023) Flowering in sugarcane?insights from the grasses. 3Biotech (2023) 13:154. 
5. Kaura V, Malhotra PK, Mittal A, Sanghera GS, Kaur N, Bhardwaj RD, Cheema RS, Kaur G (2022). Physiological, biochemical, and gene expression responses of sugarcane under cold, drought and salt stresses. J. Plant Growth Regul. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-022-10850-8. 

Book Chapter

1. Shaweta Sharma, PK Malhotra, Anna Goel, Pankaj Sharma, Gulzar S. Sanghera, and Gaganpreet Kaur (2025) From First to Fourth Generation Biofuels: Prospects and Challenges. Rajan Bhatt, Krishan K. Verma, Shiv Prasad, and Mauro Wagner Oliveira (Eds.). In edited book Climate-Smart Sugarcane Cultivation. Apple Academic Press, Inc. Co-published with CRC Press (Taylor & Francis)

• Awards/Honours/Distinctions: NIL