Patrick Shih, an associate professor in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, is working to advance the field of synthetic plant biology. His research aims to use plants to produce therapeutic compounds, improve nutrition, and develop new sources of fuel by understanding and engineering biological systems.
In a recent video for UC Berkeley’s “101 in 101” series, Shih discussed the approach his lab takes: “What we’re trying to do with biological systems is tear them down, build them back up and demonstrate that we understand how they tick.” The series challenges experts to explain their work in just 101 seconds.
Shih envisions agriculture evolving into a factory-like system that can produce essential compounds at scale. “All of our food, fiber and fuel come from plants,” he said. “If you have this ability to just tweak them, manipulate them, engineer them for new purposes, all of a sudden we have the agricultural infrastructure to build new things.”
His team introduces genes that are not naturally found in plants, with the goal of turning them into bioreactors capable of producing drugs and therapeutics. One achievement from Shih’s lab is the successful use of synthetic plant biology to grow a component of human breastmilk that was previously unavailable in baby formula.
Currently, Shih’s research group focuses on finding solutions for challenges in bioenergy, health, and agriculture. They are also developing technologies to make plant engineering more efficient and reliable.
“Berkeley is arguably ground zero for a lot of synthetic biology and genome editing, genome engineering,” Shih said. “To be able to establish a lab that’s focused on plant synthetic biology, there’s no better place than Berkeley, really, to be doing this.”
The “101 in 101” video series features UC Berkeley faculty and experts explaining their research in brief segments.
