Hiroshi Maeda
Credentials: Botany Department
Position title: Plant metabolic evolution and synthetic biology
Email: maeda2@wisc.edu
Phone: 608-262-5833
Address:
B217 Birge Hall
430 Lincoln Drive
Madison, WI 53706

LAB WEBSITE:
FOCUS GROUPS:
Plant Biology, Cellular & Molecular Metabolism
RESEARCH DESCRIPTION:
The Maeda lab is unlocking the regulatory mechanisms of plant metabolism and developing innovative solutions for sustainable chemical production. Plants harness CO2 and sunlight to produce thousands of chemical compounds. We integrate biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics, analytical chemistry, and synthetic biology to study the evolution of plant metabolic pathways across various species. We then apply these fundamental discoveries to engineer plant metabolism, enhancing the production of beneficial chemical compounds. Our research primarily focuses on nitrogen metabolism and aromatic amino acid biosynthesis, which channels up to
30% of carbon fixed by photosynthesis into producing a wide range of aromatic natural products in plants, such as flavonoids, alkaloids, and lignin—crucial components of our food, energy, materials, and medicine.
ALSO A TRAINER IN THE FOLLOWING PROGRAMS: Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics, Botany