Dr. Rong Di

Contact Information

Mailing Address

Rutgers University
Department of Plant Biology & Pathology
222B Foran Hall/ Cook Campus
59 Dudley Rd.
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
di@aesop.rutgers.edu

Campus Location

Office: Room 222B Foran Hall, 848-932-6350
Lab: Room 222 Foran Hall, 848-932-6353

Research Interests

(1) Molecular mechanisms of anti-diabetic and anti-Alzheimer’s effects of botanical extracts in C. elegans. Di’s lab uses C. elegans model system to study the anti-diabetic and anti-Alzheimer’s (AZ) effects of plant extracts from health food and medicinal plants. Mutant worms with defects in insulin signaling pathway and survival and transgenic worms expressing AZ biomarkers are used to screen plant extracts for their life-extending effects in these worms. RNAi (RNA interference) library of C. elegans is employed to further delineate the underlying molecular mechanisms of plant extracts’ anti-diabetic and anti-AZ characteristics.

(2) Molecular detection of pathogens and toxins. Di’s lab is developing portable Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) technology that can be used to detect quarantine plant pathogens (viruses, bacteria and fungi) in import and export plant materials, human pathogens that contaminate food (e.g., Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella and Listeria) and microbial toxins present in food and the environment.

(3) Plant biotechnology. Di’s lab uses plant biotechnology to genetically engineer plants to produce disease resistant crops and to study disease resistance mechanisms. We are engineering plants to endogenously express enzymes that will facilitate the conversion of starch and cellulosic biomass into ethanol to produce biofuel. We are also producing transgenic plants expressing anti-microbial peptides that can potentially be used in food packaging materials.

Publications

Click on a link below to launch a publication search:

Rutgers Affiliations

1. Associate member of the Food Science Graduate Program (Department of Food Science)
2. Full member of the Graduate Program in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics