12 December 2024 – Chih-Hang Wu, assistant research fellow at the Academia Sinica in Taiwan, first became intrigued by plant diseases while working as an undergraduate in a plant pathology lab. “I didn’t really understand anything about plant disease, but I wanted to know more,” he says. Years later he was drawn back to the topic. Now he and his team are studying the evolution and dynamics of plant immune receptors.
“We want to understand how plants use their immune systems to defend themselves against pathogenic microorganisms,” he says. By studying specific immune receptors located on the surface of cells, as well as within cells, Wu and his team aim to understand how plants detect the pathogens and activate their immune responses. “Some of these receptors work together while some others work alone; some are very effective in disease resistance. We want to explore the evolutionary history and molecular mechanisms of disease resistance and plant immunity to understand what is most effective and why.”
While he is fascinated by the details of the molecular pathways involved, he says he is also driven by the fact that his research has wider applications. “Plant pathogens cause huge yield losses in crop production. Although we’re interested in the fundamental science, we hope what we discover can at some point be applied to address the important issue of crop diseases.”
Wu hopes joining the EMBO Global Investigator Network will be a chance to forge new collaborations. “I am looking forward to interacting with other EMBO Global Investigators and establishing connections with research groups from across Europe and beyond,” he says.
