1. Functional genomics and molecular breeding of biodiesel feedstock plants
Production of renewable biofuels with energy plants can help us to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels. One of the promising biodiesel feedstock plants is Jatropha curcas (Jatropha), which is a non-edible, tropical and subtropical shrub of the family Euphorbiaceae with strong adaptability to drought and impoverished soil. Jatropha seeds contain high amounts of oil (up to 40%) that has the similar characteristics to those of fossil diesel and can be processed to produce high-quality biodiesel. The research program of the laboratory focuses on floral sex determination, flower and seed development, and oil (triacylglycerol) biosynthesis in Jatropha. Our goal is to improve Jatropha seed yield and oil content through genomic and genetic engineering approaches combined with the application of state-of-the-art techniques in biochemistry, molecular and cell biology, biotechnology, and traditional breeding, and to develop Jatropha as a model plant for energy plant research.

2. Transgenic plant bioreactors for recombinant pharmaceutical proteins
Transgenic plant bioreactors have emerged as a convenient, safe and economical alternative to microbial and animal cell expression systems or transgenic animals for the production of clinically useful recombinant pharmaceutical proteins in large amounts. Transgenic plant bioreactors have the advantages of having post-translational modifications, lacking of contamination by human or animal pathogens and easy for scale-up. One of the major obstacles in the plant bioreactors is the low yield of recombinant proteins, which are susceptible to proteolytic degradation in transgenic plant cells. Therefore, reducing protease activity in transgenic plant cells is one of the potential approaches to improve the yield of recombinant proteins. A project funded by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program) is aimed to reduce the proteolytic degradation of recombinant proteins in plant cell suspension cultures by silencing of the genes encoding the major proteases in plant cells and/or inhibition of the proteolytic activities by co-expression of protease inhibitors.