Plants produce an extraordinary array of specialized metabolites that support human health, nutrition, and sustainable agriculture. Often synthesized in response to environmental stress and ecological interactions, these compounds serve as the basis of traditional medicines, modern pharmaceuticals, and nutraceuticals. Many also play essential roles in plant defense and adaptation, offering insights into traits such as drought tolerance, pathogen resistance, and stress resilience that are increasingly critical for agriculture. Yet in many cases, their precise biological role in plants or potential therapeutic effects in humans remain poorly understood. Studying these compounds often requires isolating them or reconstructing their biosynthetic pathways in heterologous systems to enable functional and bioactivity analyses. Historically, limited pathway knowledge has constrained such efforts, but recent advances in metabolomics, sequencing, and computational biology, together with innovations in protein engineering and synthetic biology, are now bridging these gaps and transforming how we access and harness plant natural products.
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In our lab, we integrate plant biochemistry, molecular biology, and metabolic engineering to elucidate the biosynthetic pathways of specialized metabolites and develop sustainable biotechnological platforms for their production. By reconstructing biosynthetic pathways in heterologous systems, we enable scalable access to these metabolites while uncovering their roles in plants and potential bioactivities. Through this work, we aim to address global challenges in health, agriculture, and nutrition.