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

Headshot Hiroshi Maeda

LAB WEBSITE:

Maeda Lab

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

PERFORM A PUBMED PUBLICATION SEARCH