This area of research integrates plant and algal sciences to create sustainable solutions for food, energy, and environmental challenges. It enhances plant resilience, optimizes microbial and algal systems, and generates high-value products from renewable resources.
Key Research Areas:
Plant Biomass Production and Resilience
- Understanding crop tolerance to salt, drought, and temperature stress through molecular studies
- Identify nature-friendly methods to improve plant biomass and resilience for key crops such as soybean, sorghum, and tomato
- Seed synthetic microbial consortia development for improving germination and defense against abiotic stresses (drought and salinity) and pathogens
Gene Editing in Crops
- Gene editing plant cells to improve gene overexpression for key processes of nutrient transport in the root
- Gene editing plants to enhance environmental resilience (drought) and improve their photosynthetic efficiency
Soil Health and CO₂ Sequestration
- Understanding nutrient management and soil health (chemical and microbial) parameters during environmental stresses (flooding and drought)
- Enhancing soil health via nutrient supplementation and silica-based amendments
- Synthetic microbial inoculum to improve the depleted rhizospheric microbiome
Algal Biotechnology and CO₂ Sequestration
- Engineering microalgae for efficient CO₂ capture and nutrient recovery from wastewater
- Producing biocrude, lipids, and biochemicals for biofuel and bioproduct applications
- Developing airlift photobioreactors to enhance CO₂ capture and enable separation of volatile and hydrophobic products, such as lipids, via surface skimming
Seaweed Bioprocessing
- Hydrolyzing seaweeds to generate sugars as a sustainable alternative to corn-based feedstocks
- Fermenting these sugars into fuels and bio-based chemicals
Integrated Bioeconomy
- Co-producing fuels, fertilizers, and high-value bioproducts
- Promoting a circular, low-carbon, and resource-efficient bioeconomy
