Research Summary
Our research program is aimed at understanding the molecular basis of plant immunity. Crop losses from plant disease exceed several hundred billion dollars annually. These losses are devastating to a global agricultural system that is already facing the challenges of population growth, water shortages, and climate change. Therefore, improving our understanding of plant immunity is important to develop improved crops. The main ongoing research areas in our lab include:
I. Immune receptor function in pathogen recognition and activation of
immune signaling
II. The Role of inter-organellar communications during innate immunity
III. The Role of autophagy in programmed cell death (PCD), immunity
and pathogenesis
IV. Development of virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) and CRISPR/Cas9-
mediated genome editing approaches for gene function studies