Dr. Renu did M.Sc. (Biotechnology) from Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly and PhD in Life Sciences from ChatrapatiSahuji Maharaj University, Kanpur. She was Post-Doctoral Fellow at Plant Molecular Biology Department, National Institute for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB affiliated Institute), Tehran, Iran during 2003-2005. She joined ICAR in 1998 and worked in various capacities at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, deputation as Senior Scientific Officer-1 at HSCST, Department of Science and Technology, Haryana, Senior Scientist (Biotechnology) and Principal Scientist (Agricultural Biotechnology) at ICAR- Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms till 2021. Currently she is working as Principal Scientist, Commercial Crops, Crop Science Division at ICAR Headquarters, Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi.
She has been recipient of several awards namely Young Scientists’ Award 2008, Major R.S. Yadav SRDA Award-2012, Best Women Scientist Award 2015, Scientist of the Year Award 2016, Women Scientist Award 2016 and Excellence in Research Award 2017 by Smt Gulab Devi, Honorable Minister of State Social Welfare, Uttar Pradesh; Outstanding Achievement Award (2018); Distinguished Scientist Award (2018); Eminent Scientist Award (2019) by Hon’ble Minister of State for Agriculture U.P. Shri. Lakhan Singh Rajput for outstanding contribution and recognition in field of biotechnology as well as several paper and poster presentation awards. She received appreciation Letter from Financial Commissioner & Principal Secretary to Government of Haryana, Science and Technology Department for the outstanding contributions in new initiatives during year 2008-09 and 2009-10. She is admitted as Fellow of Society for Plant Research (FSPR) in 2019 and Fellow of Society for applied Biotechnology in 2012. She has been invited national and internationally to present her work. She was invited by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation(AvHF) on nomination and selection by DST, GOI as speaker in an Indo-German Frontiers of Engineering Symposium (INDOGFOE) at Potsdam, Germany.
She headed many research projects covering frontier areas of microbial biotechnology including microbe-based bioremediation of heavy metal polluted areas; metaproteogenomics; organic farming, etc. and have more than 135 publications including research papers, articles, books, technical manual, etc. She has expertise in molecular characterization of microbes and development of diagnostics through SCAR marker as evident from publications and patent. Her recent contribution in niche area of microbial biotechnology is development and refinement in the techniques for isolation of metageome and metaproteome and has recently published first report of maize metaproteome. Her another area of work has been bioprospecting of microbes for bioremediation (heavy metal) and has isolated, identified, characterized several bacterial species showing tolerance towards various heavy metals like Pb+2, Ni+2, Cd+2, Cr+3 , Hg+2,Cu+2 , Zn+2 , Co+2 and As+2 ; elucidated the mechanism of tolerance and enriched National Agriculturally Important Microbial Culture Collection (NAIMCC) with it. She also worked on microbial indicator of heavy metal pollution. Her research efforts on nutrient management and plant growth promotion in chickpea has resulted in talc based microbial formulations namely Bioshakti 1 and Bioshakti 2 which have undergone multilocational trials by AICRP on Chickpea.
At Bureau she also headed many farmer oriented programs funded by DST as Pi and DBT, namely, DBT Biotech KISAN Program as PI and Hub facilitator and first time organized efforts were carried out by her in Eastern Uttar Pradesh especially in Mau, Azamgarh, Varanasi, Aspirational districts like Balrampur, Chandauli, Siddharthnagar for dissemination of various microbe based crop production practices and agrowaste management through microbial bioconversion into microbial enriched composts through trainings, demonstration and establishment of composting units in clusters in villages.
She has also significantly contributed in field of database development in field of microbes of agricultural importancenamely Microveda (www.microveda.org.in); Microbial Genetic Resource Portal (www.microveda.org.in)which contains details on management and conservation of agriculturally important microorganisms; SSR Database of Fusarium(http://nabg.iasri.res.in:8080/ssr/ssr_home.html); two android based mobile apps viz., Microbial Genetic Resources App and Micromitra app. She has guided several students for award of M.Sc. degree in various subjects like Biotechnology and Microbiology and had been external faculty of Amity University and teaching courses to scholars registered for Ph.D. in Biosciences and Biotechnology and Ph.D. in Microbial Technology.