Henry T. Nguyen, Ph.D.
Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Plant Sciences
Principal Investigator

24 Agriculture Building
Tel: (573) 882–5494
Fax: (573) 882–1469
E-mail: nguyenhenry@missouri.edu

Heng Ye
Research Scientist

Heng Ye is a Plant Geneticist who focuses on identifying the genetic regulation of plant adaption to environments through multidisciplinary approaches, including genetics, genomics and molecular biology. He is particularly interested in dissecting the complex stress resilience traits for gene function characterization, their application in soybean breeding and understanding traits/genes evolution during domestication through population genetics. The ultimate goal is to design optimal breeding strategies for stress-resilient soybean cultivars and improve soybean production sustainability threatened by rapid climate change.
Google Scholar: https://shorturl.at/wxeet

Aamir W Khan
Postdoctoral Fellow

Aamir W. Khan is a bioinformatics researcher in the Nguyen group who focuses on developing genomics resources to facilitate genomics-assisted improvement efforts in soybean. With a background in bioinformatics specializing in computational genomics, Aamir is developing workflows and pipelines to analyze third and second-generation sequencing datasets. Aamir has developed genomes, pangenomes, high-density variations and SNP arrays for several legume species. His research has reported and developed markers for several biotic stresses in crop species. He is interested in identifying the variations, particularly structural variations and novel genomic segments associated with important traits, leveraging the graph-based pangenomics approach. Aamir is implementing new sequencing technologies and array-based genotyping platforms for better quality genotypic data for soybean germplasm and enhanced trait discovery. His current research includes the development of a soybean super-pangenome, pan-transcriptome, structural variations (SVs) map, a global soybean HapMap and AgriSeq SNP array to advance the soybean genomics research.
Google Scholar: https://shorturl.at/bLbH7

Sushil Chhapekar
Postdoctoral Fellow

Sushil Chhapekar is a passionate plant molecular biologist who aims to identify and characterize the genetic & molecular regulation of plant stress and adaptation through genetics and genomics. Sushil leads the nematode disease resistance program focusing on discovery and utilization of novel genetic sources of soybean cyst nematode (SCN) and root-knot nematode (RKN) for management of these major soybean diseases in the US. The key focus is to dissect and characterize the novel loci/genes through gene editing and to develop functional markers to assist genomics-assisted breeding for nematode resistance. Sushil’s goal is to enhance the understanding of molecular aspects of plant-nematode interaction and translate this knowledge to provide new genetic resources for limiting the impact of nematodes in the northern and southern regions of the U.S. Throughout his research discoveries, he develops genomes, transcriptome, miRNAome for important stress and nutraceutical traits in major crop species and characterized the gene functions. His current research interests include designing molecular strategies to develop broad-spectrum nematode-resistant soybean, develop pan-genome and pan-transcriptome resources for trait discovery and improve overall soybean yield. Moreover, Sushil develops goals and plans for molecular research, as well as provides technical and first-line people leadership for PhD, Master and undergrad students.
Google Scholar: https://shorturl.at/VbeHk

Haiying Shi
Senior Research Specialist

Haiying Shi is a chemist who has conducted research at Dr. Nguyen’s laboratory for over fifteen years.   She specializes in genotyping and phenotyping analyses, and contributes to method development for advanced techniques such as HPLC, GC, GC/MS, and ICP/MS.
Google Scholar: https://shorturl.at/tvgRo

Dhandapani Raju
Postdoctoral Fellow

Dhandapani Raju is a plant physiologist focusing mainly on precision phenotyping of root plasticity traits for breeding climate-resilient soybean cultivars. Raju is interested in phenomics-assisted exploration of genetic variation, identification of novel root traits; superior donors, QTLs/ genes associated with abiotic stress (drought and flooding) tolerance in soybean. Currently, Raju is involved in developing end-to-end, open-access and cost-effective solutions for high throughput root phenotyping of a large population of diverse soybean genotypes. He is also active in collaborative efforts for remote sensing and large-scale field phenotyping of both canopy & root traits in soybean. His expertise involves the application of an array of sensors, embedded systems, phenotyping tools and techniques, high-resolution phenome image database, automatic image processing pipeline, big data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence for soybean crop improvement.
Google Scholar: https://shorturl.at/tgQS5