# Developing plant synthetic biology platforms to elucidate the role of natural products

> **NIH NIH R00** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY · 2020 · $220,416

## Abstract

Project Summary and Abstract
No change to the Project Summary and Abstrasct will be made with the transfer of this award from UC Davis to UC
Berkeley. The change in recipient institution is not related to concerns about safety and/or work environments (e.g. due to
concerns about harassment, bullying, retaliation, or hostile working conditions) involving the PD/PI.
Plants produce a wealth of natural products that have wide-ranging effects on human nutrition, disease, and overall
wellbeing. However, because of the complexities of many of these specialized metabolites, we have been limited in our
ability to study the effects of individual phytochemicals on human health. Recently, the nascent field of synthetic biology
has provided the means to dissect biological systems into their individual components, enabling scientists to reverse
engineer and reconstruct their biochemical makeup. This approach has largely been limited to simple organisms (e.g., E.
coli and yeast); however, plants provide a unique platform to leverage synthetic biology. My research focuses on
introducing design and engineering principles to rationally manipulate plant metabolism in order to investigate the
biosynthesis and physiological roles of plant natural products. Edible cruciferous plants (e.g., broccoli, bok choy) have
been implicated in cancer prevention, stemming from their diversity of indole glucosinolate derivatives. However,
because of the vast diversity of bioactive compounds produced in cruciferous plants, it is challenging to tease apart and
pinpoint the specific molecules that may be responsible for a trait as complex as cancer prevention. As a result, many
studies have resulted in conflicting findings and tenuous links between glucosinolates and their claimed nutritional
benefits. Engineering specific target molecules into novel hosts with no basal biological activity may provide insight and
help clarify their role in human health at a molecular level. The development of plant synthetic biology platforms to
produce and deliver specific concentrations of target plant natural products will enable future studies to more
quantitatively study the claimed benefits and effects of glucosinolates on human health.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10464431
- **Project number:** 7R00AT009573-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY
- **Principal Investigator:** Patrick Shih
- **Activity code:** R00 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $220,416
- **Award type:** 7
- **Project period:** 2017-08-01 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10464431

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10464431, Developing plant synthetic biology platforms to elucidate the role of natural products (7R00AT009573-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10464431. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*