Engineering Biological Resilience for a Changing Climate
Our research is organized into three interconnected areas.
Lipid droplets · Antiviral immunity · RNA regulation · Plant–microbe interactions
PAM-independent editing · TIGR-Tas · CRISPR · Prime editing
Climate-resilient microalgae · Bioproduction · Biophotovoltaics · Living electricity
Plant Cell & Molecular Biology of Stress and Immunity
We use plant cell and molecular biology to understand how plants reorganize cellular structures, molecular pathways, and interactions with microorganisms in response to environmental stress and pathogen infection. Our research spans organelle biology, RNA regulation, plant immunity, and plant–microbe interactions, with the goal of uncovering molecular mechanisms that contribute to plant resilience.
Lipid droplets (LDs) are dynamic cellular organelles whose functions extend far beyond lipid storage. We investigate how LDs, LD-associated proteins, and lipid-mediated processes contribute to plant antiviral immunity and cellular responses to infection.
Using plant genetics, molecular biology, live-cell imaging, protein interaction analyses, lipidomics, and viral infection assays, we study how LDs communicate with other cellular compartments and how these interactions influence plant defense.
We investigate how post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms, including RNA modifications and RNA-binding proteins, shape plant immune and stress responses. A particular interest is how RNA regulatory pathways interact with stress-responsive cellular structures and molecular networks during pathogen infection.
Plant resilience is also shaped by the microorganisms surrounding the plant. We isolate and characterize plant-associated and environmental bacteria, including rhizobacteria from the DKU Garden, and investigate how microbial communities and defined microbial consortia influence plant physiology and environmental adaptation.
This research also provides the biological foundation for our plant–microbial bioelectronic systems described below.
Expanding the Editing Space Across Plants and Microalgae
We develop and apply next-generation genome-engineering technologies across diverse photosynthetic organisms, from model plants and crops to microalgae. Our goal is both to establish new editing technologies and to use them to investigate and engineer biologically important traits.
Conventional CRISPR systems are constrained by specific PAM requirements, limiting the genomic sequences that can be targeted. We investigate emerging PAM-independent programmable genome-editing systems, including TIGR-Tas/Tas-based technologies, and evaluate their activities across multiple photosynthetic organisms.
Our current platforms include:
This cross-species research is conducted through our programs at Duke Kunshan University (DKU) and the Center for Genome Engineering, Institute for Basic Science (IBS-CGE).
We develop CRISPR-based and prime-editing platforms, particularly for microalgae, where efficient and programmable genome manipulation remains challenging. Our work explores strategies for controlled expression of genome-editing components, efficient genome modification, and the generation of stable engineered strains.
We apply these technologies to investigate and engineer biological traits related to stress resilience, metabolism, and sustainable biological production.
Our long-term goal is to move from identifying mechanisms of biological resilience toward the programmable engineering of resilience.
From Environmental Discovery to Sustainable Living Technologies
Natural environments contain enormous biological diversity shaped by environmental selection. We discover resilient microorganisms from the environment and investigate how their physiology and genomes enable them to survive challenging conditions, while also developing these organisms as platforms for sustainable biotechnology.
We isolate microalgae from natural environments and characterize their responses to environmental stress using physiological, genomic, phylogenetic, and high-throughput phenotyping approaches.
Our research follows an integrated pipeline:
We are particularly interested in naturally occurring microalgae with enhanced tolerance to environmental stresses and in identifying the mechanisms responsible for their resilience.
Naturally resilient microalgae can provide robust biological chassis for engineered functions. We combine environmental strain discovery with genome engineering and metabolic analysis to develop microalgae as sustainable platforms for the production of valuable metabolites and biomolecules.
We are exploring an emerging interface between biology and engineering: living bioelectronics. Rather than treating photosynthetic organisms simply as sources of biomass, we investigate how their ongoing photosynthetic and metabolic activities can be interfaced with electrodes, energy-harvesting systems, and electronic devices.
We investigate how living microalgae can generate measurable electrical outputs in biophotovoltaic (BPV) systems. By integrating environmental strain discovery, physiological characterization, electrochemistry, and device engineering, we explore the potential of resilient photosynthetic microorganisms as biological components of sustainable bioelectronic systems.
Our living bioelectronics research also extends to complete plant–microbe systems.
In the DKU Garden Living Electricity Project, we are developing transparent plant–microbial fuel cells (PMFCs) using living lettuce and rhizobacterial consortia isolated from the DKU Garden.
The project investigates whether plant-associated microbial communities can enhance electricity generation from living plant systems. The biological and engineering pathway can be summarized as:
The system integrates plant biology, microbiology, environmental engineering, and electronics, ultimately allowing visitors to observe living roots and the rhizosphere, monitor electricity generation and energy accumulation, and use the stored energy to illuminate an LED.
Plant cell & molecular biology
Plant immunity
Environmental biology
Genome editing
Functional engineering
Climate-resilient organisms
Sustainable bioproduction
Living bioelectronics