Research Summary
Photobodies are photoreceptors-containing biomolecular condensates that sense light and regulate almost every facet of plant growth and development. Our lab is interested in understanding fundamental functions of photobodies in reprogramming plant growth, development, and chloroplast biogenesis. We particularly focus on the role of photobodies as developmental and environmental sensors in nucleus-chloroplast communication to orchestrate transcriptional regulation in nuclear and plastid genomes.
Education
- B.S., Department of Biology, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea
- Ph.D., Department of Horticulture, Purdue University, IN, US
Biography
Chan Yul earned his PhD in Horticultural Science at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN in 2011, working on plant molecular genetics involved in abiotic stress adaptation with Dr. Paul Hasegawa and Dr. Michael Mickelbart. His PhD research was focused on understanding the molecular, developmental, and physiological mechanisms of acclimation and adaptation in various environmental stresses including high temperature and drought stresses. Then, Chan Yul joined to Dr. Meng Chen’s lab at Duke University as a postdoctoral associate and followed the lab’s move to the University of California Riverside to study light, one of the most important environmental signals for the life of plants. His postdoctoral research led to exciting discoveries about a novel framework of anterograde or nucleus-to-chloroplast signaling pathway that links photoreceptors-containing biomolecular condensates called photobodies in the nucleus to chloroplast biogenesis. Chan Yul started his own lab as an Assistant Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Utah on Jan 2022. His lab is broadly interested in uncovering novel functions and mechanisms of photobodies as developmental and environmental sensors, and identifying unknown genes in the nucleus-to-chloroplast signaling pathway.