Bio
Dr. Xiaohan Yang is a Distinguished Scientist in the Synthetic Biology Group in Biosciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). He obtained his PhD degree (major in Horticulture and minor in Plant Molecular Biology and Plant Breeding) from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. He is an editor-in-chief of BioDesign Research (https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/biodesign-research). His research encompasses plant genome editing, metabolic pathway engineering, plant-based biosensors, synthetic biology tool development, secure biosystems design, plant genomics, automated plant transformation, and the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in plant science. His work focuses on advancing bioenergy, biomaterials, Rare Earth Elements (REEs), and plant–microbe interactions to support the bioeconomy and promote environmental sustainability. He received two R&D 100 Awards in 2018 and 2024 and was named a Finalist for the R&D 100 Award in 2025. He has authored or co-authored more than 150 scientific publications.
Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) is a biological innovation that allows plants to thrive in water-limited environments such as arid deserts and areas with a pronounced seasonal drought. The water-use efficiency of CAM plants is much higher than that of C3 and C4 plants. Transferring CAM machinery into existing crops holds tremendous potential for sustainable production of food and biomass on semi-arid, marginal, or degraded agricultural lands. Dr. Yang leads a research team at ORNL to engineer CAM using Synthetic Biology approach for the purpose of improving water-use efficiency of bioenergy feedstocks. Besides CAM engineering, he is interested in engineering plants for bioeconomy (bioenergy, biomaterials, Rare Earth Elements (REEs)).
Dr. Yang’s team develops new tools for synthetic biology research, such as assembly of DNA parts into genetic circuits, multi-gene engineering in plants, high-throughput manipulation of gene expression, high precision genome engineering, efficient transformation in non-model plant species, and application of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in synthetic biology. He is very interested in automated Design-Build-Test-Learn pipeline for accelerating plant synthetic biology research as well as synthetic genomics.
Dr. Yang has extensive experience in plant genomics research. He leads the effort to sequence the genomes of two important CAM models (Agave and Kalanchoe) and performs studies on the plant small proteins and non-coding RNAs involved in the interactions with microbes. His lab is applying genome-editing technologies to plant functional genomics research and genetic improvement of crop plants.
Awards
2025: Finalist for the R&D 100 Award (Often referred to as “The Oscars of Innovation” and the “Nobel Prize of Engineering”).
2024: R&D 100 Award
2022: The first prize of Cells 2021 Best Paper Awards for Anniversary Special Issues
2018: R&D 100 Award
2008: Distinguished Achievement Award for Post-Graduate Research in Environmental Science (In recognition of outstanding early career productivity, ability to collaborate effectively in a team setting, and ability to integrate bioinformatics and molecular biology to gain novel insights into evolutionary genomics).
2000: Liu Memorial Award in recognition of his excellent progress and high potential for a successful academic career.
Trademarks and Patents
1. U.S. patent No. US 10,227,601 B2 (Issued: March 12, 2019): “PtDUF266 Gene Regulating Cell Wall Biosynthesis and Recalcitrance in Populus”. Inventors: Jin-Gui Chen, Sara Jawdy, Xiaohan Yang, Gerald A. Tuskan, Yongil Yang, Lee E. Gunter
2. U.S. patent No. US 10,246,719 B2 (Issued: April 2, 2019): “Modulating Laccase Enzyme to Regulate Cell Wall Biosynthesis and Recalcitrance in Plants”. Inventors: Jin-Gui Chen, Lee E. Gunter, Sara S. Jawdy, Xiaohan Yang, Gerald A. Tuskan, Anthony C. Bryan
3. U.S. patent No. US 11,028,404 B2 (Issued: June 8, 2021): “Methods of improving mycorrhization in plants and genetically modified plants with improved mycorrhization”. Inventors: Wellington Muchero, Jessy L Labbe, Lee E Gunter, Jin-Gui Chen, Sara S Jawdy, Xiaohan Yang, Gerald A Tuskan, Juan Wang, Olaf Czarnecki, Priya Ranjan
4. U.S. patent No. US 11,041,164 B2 (Issued: June 22, 2021): “Genes for enhancing drought and heat tolerance in plants and methods of use”. Inventors: Xiaohan Yang, Gerald A. Tuskan, Degao Liu, Rongbin Hu, Jin-Gui Chen, Meng Xie
5. U.S. patent No. US 11,535,860 B2 (Issued: December 27, 2022) “Genes for enhancing salt and drought tolerance in plants and methods of use”. Inventors: Xiaohan Yang, Degao Liu, Rongbin Hu, Gerald A. Tuskan.
6. U.S. patent No. US 11,715,191 B2 (Issued: August 1, 2023) “Method and system for automated plant surveillance and manipulation”. Inventors: Udaya C. Kalluri, Andrzej Nycz, Lonnie J. Love, Vincent C. Paquit, Xiaohan Yang, Samuel C. Leach, Harold Walters
7. US Patent No.: 11,725,211 B2 (Issued: August 15, 2023) “TNT Cloning System”. Inventors: Gerald A. Tuskan, Xiaohan Yang, Henrique Cestari De Paoli.
8. U.S. patent No. US 2024/0355419 A1 (Issued: October 24, 2024) “Rapid assembly of multiplex gRNA arrays”. Yang, X., Hassan, M. M., Martin, S., Tuskan, G. A. & Yuan, G.