Awarded in 2025
Home Department: Chemistry
Faculty Advisors: Elizabeth Sattely (Chemical Engineering), Mary Beth Mudgett (Biology), and Xiaojing Gao (Chemical Engineering)

Research Title: A First-In-Class, in planta Single-Cell Genetic Screen to Accelerate the Engineering of Pathogen Resistance in Crops

Between 17-30% of the top five global crops are lost annually to pathogen infection, reducing human access to nutritious foods. Crops engineered with boosted immunity could resist devastating pathogen losses to ensure global food security. Innovative plant genetic screening methods are needed to discover critical plant immune proteins more rapidly and efficiently. Tara will harness plant synthetic biology and repurpose mammalian bioengineering tools to develop a first-in-class in planta, single-cell high-throughput genetic screen. Applying the screen will drastically accelerate the discovery of proteins that orchestrate systemic plant immune response, a critical step towards bioengineering pathogen-resistant crops that reduce yield loss.