Sijin Li

Sijin Li’s research sits at the intersection of biology and engineering, using synthetic biology to uncover how plants make specialized natural products and to engineer these processes for applications in medicine and biotechnology.

Li’s group develops synthetic biology approaches in yeast and plants to discover and characterize plant natural product biosynthetic pathways, including the enzymes and protein interactions that enable plants to produce complex molecules. The group then engineers these pathways in yeast to study and produce valuable natural products, with a particular interest in advancing plant-based drug discovery and development. Current research includes the discovery and engineering of biosynthetic pathways for medicinal compounds, including kratom natural products.

The group also investigates how plants communicate, with the goal of manipulating these signaling systems to enable whole-plant control and programming. Together, these research directions combine synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, plant biology, and protein-protein interaction studies to develop new ways to understand and engineer biological systems.

Research areas include:

• Biomolecular Engineering and Biotechnology