Research Bio

Yan Gong is a plant developmental biologist investigating how plants pattern tissues and build specialized organs such as nectaries. His lab integrates genetic screens, single cell transcriptomics, quantitative live imaging, and comparative evolution to identify the cellular programs and signaling pathways that govern floral development, particularly the floral nectaries. By connecting regulatory networks to morphology, the group seeks general principles of plant patterning and the evolutionary routes by which new structures arise. These insights can inform crop improvement and pollinator interactions by revealing how plants control the form and function of floral organs.

Research Expertise and Interest

plant development, cell biology, single-cell transcriptomics, evolutionary genomics