Dr. Yulin Jia, as mentor, and Dr. Jai Rohila, as co-mentor, will host Dr. Annapurna Devi Allu, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, one of major federal research institutes in India. Dr. Allu’s visit is funded by the Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology Fellowship Program (Borlaug Fellowship Program) and the USDA-FAS Office of Capacity Building and Development. Dr. Allu attended the 28th Plant and Animal Genome conference (pictured above with Dr. Jia and Dr. Jeremy Edwards). On January 16, 2020 she initiated her research project entitled "Identification of miRNA’s Involvement with the Presence of the Blast Resistance Gene Ptr Under Water Stress Conditions" at the DBNRRC. She will work at DBNRRC for three months and complete the entire project by January 2022.