The Position

The Biological Design Unit at OIST studies plant development through highly integrative, interdisciplinary approaches spanning biology, physics, and engineering. We dissect the physicochemical regulation of cell- and organ-identity-specific differentiation and functionality.

Plant cells are generally highly regenerative, and it is fabled that all mature cells can dedifferentiate and regain totipotency. However, regenerative biology has not yet blossomed as much as in animal systems. Plants are the traditional chassis of biomanufacturing in agriculture and horticulture, being the natural sources of most of our food, drugs, and materials. Farmland-based bioproduction is resource-intensive in terms of water, nutrients, and protective chemicals. It is also becoming increasingly unpredictable due to a changing climate. What if we can grow plant-derived products in bioreactors, in plant cells that are equipped to make them through many millions of years of evolution?

We are developing bottom-up development platforms for plant suspension cell cultures. We create new, fully potent stem cell-like cultures and guide their differentiation into cell types suitable for producing specific biocompounds. Our regenerative plant engineering research is driven by both applied and fundamental science; in addition to creating a novel plant-based cellular agriculture platform, it also serves as a test of our state-of-the-art knowledge in plant development, allowing us to ask, “Do we now understand plant development sufficiently?”

Specific projects will be discussed and developed as candidates are shortlisted. OIST enables hiring postdoctoral researchers at various experience levels. We will identify the best-fit candidates for the team and assign positions based on career stage and track record. In particular, we seek candidates interested in such projects as:

• Creating novel, effective plant cell factories able to produce secondary metabolites or proteins
• Developing molecular tools and technologies to aid complex pathway engineering
• Enhancing protoplast regeneration or conferring stem-cell-ness to plant suspension cultured cells