# Developing plant synthetic biology platforms to elucidate the role of natural products > **NIH NIH R00** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS · 2020 · $1 ## Abstract Project Summary and Abstract Candidate and Environment During my graduate career at UC Berkeley, I became interested in the evolution and engineering of metabolic pathways, primarily relating to photosynthesis. It was through this work that I became familiar with the field of synthetic biology and integrated it into my graduate work through engineering synthetic carbon fixation pathways to improve photosynthetic yield and the synthesis of phylogenetically predicted enzymes that existed hundreds of millions of years ago. Excited about the prospects of synthetic biology in plants, I received a Life Sciences Research Foundation postdoctoral fellowship and joined Dr. Dominique Loqué's lab at the Joint BioEnergy Institute and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where I have focused on developing plant synthetic biology tools to facilitate metabolic engineering in plants. Although I have spent my postdoctoral career focused on tool development, I am interested in the application of these technologies to engineer novel natural product biosynthetic pathways with unique biological functions. My long- term career goals involve the development of synthetic biology tools and platforms for enabling basic discovery and translational research involving plant natural products and metabolic engineering. My diverse research experiences provide a strong foundation to attain this goal. Although I have spent much of my career focusing on primary carbon metabolism and photosynthesis, I have not yet had any training in secondary metabolism and elucidation of natural product biosynthetic pathways. Thus, my immediate goal is to obtain training from the K99/R00 award under the guidance of experts in the field to successfully bridge my interests in synthetic biology and plant natural products and ultimately transition to an independent faculty position. My mentoring team is composed of experts in disparate yet complementary fields, allowing me to receive training in their respective niches and organically build my own independent research program. I will be co-mentored by Dr. Dominique Loqué (Lawrence Berkeley National Lab/UC Berkeley), an expert in plant synthetic biology, Dr. Elizabeth Sattely (Stanford), a leading expert in plant secondary metabolism, and Dr. Jay Keasling (Lawrence Berkeley National Lab/UC Berkeley), a pioneer in microbial synthetic biology and metabolic engineering. I will receive further training and guidance form Dr. Justin Sonnenburg (Stanford) as a collaborator and expert studying the role of small molecules on the intestinal microbiota. I will have regular one-on-one meetings with my advisory committee to ensure that I stay on track with my career development and research progress to obtain an independent faculty position. The proximity between both Berkeley and Stanford will enable me to take advantage of the excellent academic environment of both institutions, providing opportunities to meet visiting scholars, attend seminars, and take cou... ## Key facts - **NIH application ID:** 9990696 - **Project number:** 5R00AT009573-04 - **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS - **Principal Investigator:** Patrick Shih - **Activity code:** R00 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.) - **Funding institute:** NIH - **Fiscal year:** 2020 - **Award amount:** $1 - **Award type:** 5 - **Project period:** 2017-08-01 → 2021-06-30 ## Primary source NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9990696 ## Citation > US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9990696, Developing plant synthetic biology platforms to elucidate the role of natural products (5R00AT009573-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9990696. Licensed CC0. --- *[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*