Alumni

Yaomin Cai

Postdoctoral Scientist
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Biography

After graduating from Xiamen University (China) in 2008 I moved to the UK to persue my PhD degree at the The University of Manchester. I completed my PhD program in 2013, remaining at the University of Manchester as a post doctoral researcher with my main research topic being programmed cell death in plants.

I joined Dr. Nicola Patron’s lab at Earlham Institute in February 2017. The plant biotechnology has started to affect the industry of chemical production, for example, people are able to produce some rare metabolites in plants rather than synthesize it in a chemistry manner. This usually requires a reprogram of the plant genetic network. However, the unstable and inaccurate modifying of endogenous genetic pathway still impedes the progress of applying plant biotechnology knowledge to industry. This is, at least partly, due to the lacking of neatly controllable promoters.

At EI I will focus on understanding the transcription factors and cis-elements that regulate endogenous constitutive genes expressions in plants. By gaining deeper insight into the endogenous constitutive promoters we hope we are able to create novel promoters which can provide more stable and accurate regulation of gene expression in plants. This will be benefit the application in biotechnology, especially the bio-production.