Saleem hails from Nigeria. He holds a BSc in Agricultural Science from Usmanu Danfodiyo University (Nigeria) and an MSc in Crop Biotechnology and Entrepreneurship from the University of Nottingham (UK). After completing his MSc, Saleem moved back to Nigeria, where worked briefly as a Lecturer at Ahmadu Bello University (Nigeria) before returning back to the University of Nottingham to pursue a PhD.

In his PhD, Saleem is investigating varying levels of UV-C as hormetic stressor in barley for defence against Ramularia collo-cygnia: a latent seed borne pathogen of barley.

He is leveraging on transcriptome analysis to understand the mechanism of defence and identify key genes involved. He is also looking at the effects of UV-C doses on seed microbiome and overall plant health and nutrition. Furthermore, he’s developing a rapid detection strategy for the pathogen by combining isothermal amplification techniques with CRISPR-Cas systems for in-field diagnostics.

Saleem initially worked with Matt Dickinson until his retirement. He’s now moved to Gabriel’s Lab.