Research Interests

Using vegetable oils as a source of dietary lipids, renewable biomaterials and biofuels is increasing worldwide.  Increasing seed oil production is necessary to fulfill global demand and benefit Canada. Moreover, seed oils customized for specific markets would result in added value and diversification opportunities for oilseed producers. In addition, some microorganims such as certain microalgal and yeast species can accumulate high amount of lipids, fatty acids and other valuable bioproducts. However, efforts to improve oil yield and quality in seeds and microorganisms are limited by our inadequate knowledge about oil formation and the lack of effective biotechnology strategies.

We are interested in

• expanding our knowledge of storage lipid formation and acyl editing;
• increasing oil yield in plants and microorganisms;
• producing pecialty oils and other high-value bioproducts in plants and microorganims via synthetic biology;
• improving agronomic characteristics of oil crops (e.g. stress tolerance, seed yield and quality).

For more information, please contact

Guanqun (Gavin) Chen, PhD (https://apps.ualberta.ca/directory/person/gc24)