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Assistant Professor, Dept. of Plant Biology
My research programs with turfgrass primarily focus on genetic engineering different turfgrass species for disease resistance and stress tolerance. We employ CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/CRISPR-associated 9 nuclease)-gene editing technology to engineer the grass host factors that are negative regulators in disease development and stresses such as drought and salinity. We also use plant tissue culture methods to induce and select disease resistant and stress tolerant turfgrass species.
