It has been estimated that plants can produce over 1 million small molecules, but we know less than 0.1 % of their biosynthetic pathways.

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Creative methods thus are needed to look under the iceberg of largely untapped biosynthetic pathways. We employ a multidisciplinary approaches across bioinformatics, genetics, and chemistry, to comprehensively understand how and why plants have produced this hallmark of specialized metabolites.

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Current work is focused on plants from the Brassicaceae family and systematically study the function, evolution and biosynthesis of metabolic pathways from this family. We are also interested in pathways encoded by biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). It holds great potential to mine more and novel biosynthetic pathways efficiently. However, how and why plants have evolved BGCs remain less understood. We are collabrating with Prof. Anne Osbourn from John Innes Centre and  aim to understand their assembly, patterns of evolution and common features in a systematic fashion.

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Another research direction of our lab will focus on translation of important biosynthtic pathways into affordable applications. Metabolic engineering plus genetic modification tools will be applied to various host system to produce natural products with better yeild, more environmental friendly and lower prices.