Nanosensors for Plant Health Monitoring
Plants have developed a sophisticated set of signaling pathways to promptly respond to the changing environment. We engineer nanosensors capable of monitoring metabolites and small molecules involved in plant defense to illuminate plant stress responses and signaling dynamics.
Featured publications:
Targeted Nanoparticle Delivery for Precision Agriculture
Nanomaterials are promising biomolecule delivery vehicles to improve agrochemical use efficiency while reducing environmental impacts. We aim to discover design principles for targeted nanoparticle delivery, and leverage these principles for precise biomolecule delivery to manipulate the plant genome.
Featured publications:
1. Small, 2018
Probing Plant-Microbes Interaction
Plants harbor a diverse community of microorganisms, many of which promote plant health through improved nutrient acquisitions, production of growth hormones, increased stress tolerance and defense against pathogens. We will develop nano-enabled toolsets to unravel the interaction dynamics between microbiota and host plants. Uncovering such knowledge will enable new opportunities to engineer high-yielding and climate-resilient agriculture.
Improving Biocompatibility of Plant Nanotechnology
The acceptance of agricultural nanotechnology requires comprehensive knowledge of nanoparticles' impact on plant health. We will study the effect of nanoparticles on plants at the molecular level to identify the key components of nanoparticles that trigger transcriptional reprogramming in plants, with the objective of designing more biocompatible nanoparticles for agriculture.
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