The Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich, UK

Group Leader, August 2024 – Present

Our lab aims to understand molecular and spatiotemporal characteristics of cells comprising the holobiont (the collective entity of the host and surrounding microbes). We tackle this challenge by developing and incorporating new genomics & imaging technologies tailored for studying plant-microbe interactions. Our lab will (1) characterize the responses and functions of both plant and microbial cells at the single-cell and spatial resolution, (2) link single-cell plant-microbe interactions with holobiont traits, and (3) precisely manipulate cells in the holobiont to confer desirable traits.

The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, USA

Postdoctoral Fellow, May 2019 – July 2024

Supervisor: Prof. Joseph R. Ecker

• Application of single-cell (multi)omics technologies (snRNA-seq, snATAC-seq, and snDNA methylation sequencing) and spatial transcriptomics technologies in plants

• Development of a microscope-based multiplexed spatial gene expression analysis technology for whole-mount plant tissue (PHYTOMap)

• Plant-pathogen interactions in the leaf

• Plant-microbiome interactions in the root

• Building a transcriptome atlas of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana that covers the entire life cycle of the plant

Max-Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Cologne, Germany 

Ph.D. (Genetics, summa cum laude), Apr. 2015 – Apr. 2019

Supervisor: Dr. Kenichi Tsuda

• Development of in planta bacterial transcriptomics and proteomics technologies

• Plant immunity and plant microbiota

• Genetic dissection of plant hormone networks

The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

M.S., Apr. 2012 – Mar. 2015

Supervisor: Prof. Tomoko Nakanishi

• Imaging and quantitative analysis of radioisotopes in plants

• Radioactive contamination surveys in Fukushima after the nuclear accident

CEA Cadarache, Saint-Paul-lez-Durance, France 

Research Student, Oct. 2013 – Jul. 2014

Supervisors: Dr. Laurent Nussaume, Dr. Alain Vavasseur, and Dr. Nathalie Leonhardt

• Nutrient transportation in Arabidopsis and rice

• Functional analysis of plant ion channels with electrophysiology

The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

B.S., Apr. 2009 – Mar. 2013

• Biochemical Society Early Career Research Award 2025 [Link]

• Best Trainee Talk, Salk Science at the Seaside Symposium 2023

• Poster Prize, Gordon Research Conference Plant Molecular Biology, June 2022, Holderness, NH

• Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) Long-Term Fellow, 2020-present

• PhD summa cum laude (with the highest distinction), Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research/University of Cologne, April 2019

• Travel grant, IPMB 2018, Montpellier, France

• Best Paper Award for Young Researchers, Japan Radioisotope Association, 2016

• The Nakajima Foundation Scholarship, 2015-2019

• French Government Scholarship 2013-2014

• Young Scientist Oral Presentation Award, 50th meeting of Japan Radioisotope Associatoin 2013　

ERC Advanced, ERC Consolidator, ANR, SPS, NSF

Cell Reports, Developmental Cell, eLife, ISME, Molecular Plant Microbe Interactions, Nature Communications, Nature Microbiology, Nature Plants, New Phytologist, PNAS, Plant Cell Physiology, Plos Pathogens, Trends in Plant Science, The Plant Cell, The Plant Journal

• FASEB 2025 Mechanisms in Plant Development, Southbridge, Massachusetts, (August 2025), Accepted

• Gordon Research Conference for Single-Cell Approaches in Plant Biology, University of Southern Maine, (August 2025), Accepted

• Plant Biology 2025 (Plenary speaker), Milwaukee, (July 2025), Accepted

• 14th Conference of the European Foundation for Plant Pathology (Keynote Speaker), Uppsala, Sweden, (June 2025), Accepted

• VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology, Ghent, (March 2025), Host: Hilde Nelissen

• Revolutionizing Next-Generation Sequencing 6th edition, Antwerp, (March 2025), Accepted

• Department seminar, Department of Plant Molecular Biology (DBMV), University of Lausanne, (February 2025), Accepted

• ENS Lyon, (December 2024), Host: Teva Vernoux

• IBENS Paris, (December 2024), Host: Lionel Navarro

• Distinguished Speaker Seminar Series (DSSS), Max-Planck Institute for Biology, Tübingen, (November 2024)

• EPS Summer School, Utrecht University, (August 2024)

• Plant Biology 2024, American Society of Plant Biologists, Hawaii, (June 2024)

• Department seminar, Department of Biochemistry, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, (April 2024)

• Department seminar, Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Davis, (April 2024) 

• RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Yokohama, Japan, (March 2024), Host: Keiko Sugimoto

• SEE departmental seminar, Louisiana State University, (January 2024), Host: Jordan Dowell

• INPLANTOMICS symposium, "Rhizosphere Metagenomics and Plant Microbe Interactions", (January 2024)

• Departmental seminar, Department of Cell & Systems Biology, University of Toronto, (November 2023), Host: Darrell Desveaux 

• Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University, (October 2023), Host: Sebastian Schornack & Alan Wanke

• EMSL User Meeting (Keynote Speaker), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, (September 2023)

• Center for Digital Green-innovation special seminar, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, (September 2023)

• International Society for Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions (IS-MPMI) Congress 2023, (July 2023) 

• The 33rd International Conference on Arabidopsis Research (ICAR2023), (June 2023) 

• Plants3D Seminar, UC Riverside, (April 2023), Host: Julia Bailey-Serres  

• EMBL-EBI Webinar, (March 2023): https://youtu.be/i9Lk_mAyShU

• Plant & Animal Genome Conference: PAG 30, San Diego, (January 2023), Host: Guido Van den Ackerveken

• Plant & Animal Genome Conference: PAG 30, San Diego, (January 2023), Host:Stefania Giacomello

• Plant & Animal Genome Conference: PAG 30, San Diego, (January 2023), Host: Hao-Xun Chang

• The Plant Cell Atlas (PCA) symposium 2022, (December 2022), Host: The Plant Cell Atlas initiative

• Leiden University, Plant Stress Biology Seminar, (November 2022), Host: Pingtao Ding

• The Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich, UK, (September 2022), Host: Sophien Kamoun

• Max-Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Cologne, Germany, (September 2022), Host: Paul Schulze-Lefert

• International Symposium for Plant Biotic Interactions, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China, (July 2022), Host: Kenichi Tsuda

• RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Yokohama, Japan, (June 2022), Host: Ken Shirasu

• 13th European Nitrogen Fixation Conference, Stockholm, Sweden, (August 2018), Host: Simona Radutoiu and Phillip Pool