Genome-edited tomato for higher lycopene

Current

Lycopene is the carotenoid that makes a tomato red and carries much of its nutritional value. We are editing SGR1 and CYC‑B in MT‑3, a Malaysian lowland tomato, to push flux toward lycopene accumulation: knocking out SGR1 removes a negative regulator of ripening-associated pigment change, while disrupting CYC-B stops lycopene being converted onward into beta-carotene. Together they raise the lycopene the fruit actually retains.

The point is nutritional density in a variety already suited to Malaysian lowland conditions — improving what a locally grown crop delivers rather than importing one bred elsewhere.

Recombinant phytase as a feed additive

Current

Most of the phosphorus in plant-based animal feed is locked up as phytic acid, which poultry and fish cannot digest. The result is twofold waste: feed has to be supplemented with mineral phosphate, and the undigested phytate passes straight through into waterways. Phytase unlocks that phosphorus — and it is currently imported.

We are working on recombinant phytase expression in E. coli as a potential locally produced feed additive. Malaysia imports the overwhelming majority of its animal feed inputs, so an enzyme that can be made domestically is a small but concrete contribution to food sovereignty: less import dependence, better nutrient use, and less phosphorus pollution.

Rice protoplast isolation and transfection

Principal researcher, 2021–2025

Protoplasts — rice cells stripped of their walls — are the fastest honest test of whether a CRISPR construct actually works. We optimised isolation and PEG‑mediated transfection for Malaysian rice cultivars, which is finicky work: yield and viability depend on tissue age, enzyme cocktail, and osmotic conditions that differ from one cultivar to the next. The payoff is being able to functionally assess guide constructs in days rather than committing months to regenerating whole plants.

This work earned the Best Poster Award at the Malaysian Society of Plant Physiology Conference 2025, for functional assessment of CRISPR/Cas9 constructs in rice cv. MR 297 by PEG‑mediated protoplast transfection.

Microneedle-assisted, DNA-free CRISPR delivery

M.Eng. research, AIST Tsukuba & TUAT, 2022–2024

Conventional editing delivers Cas9 as DNA, which then has to be bred back out. Delivering the ribonucleoprotein complex directly — protein plus guide RNA, no vector — sidesteps that entirely, but the plant cell wall makes it hard. My master's research used microneedle arrays to breach that barrier and deliver Cas9 RNP into rice directly, and in parallel optimised the mutation detection needed to tell whether an edit had taken.

The work was carried out at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, while enrolled at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, under a MEXT scholarship from the Government of Japan.

Genome editing and transgenics for disease resistance

2014–present

Rice disease is the recurring target. We have worked on CRISPR/Cas9 editing of a local rice variety for blast resistance via Agrobacterium‑mediated transformation, and on transgenic MR 219 rice with enhanced resistance to sheath blight, where I ran the RT‑qPCR expression analysis. Earlier projects extended to papaya: engineering dieback resistance through a quorum quenching strategy, where I contributed to the confined field trial, and developing a positive selection system using phosphomannose isomerase to avoid antibiotic markers altogether.

Genomics, transcriptomics and expression analysis

To interpret what the bench produces we work with NGS data — RNA‑seq pipelines, de novo assembly, and RT‑qPCR profiling. I contributed to the first draft genome and queen‑larva transcriptome of the Malaysian stingless bee Heterotrigona itama, and led the functional analysis of the de novo fruit transcriptome of Terengganu cherry (Lepisanthes fruticosa), an underused local fruit whose genetics were essentially undescribed.

Biosafety, biorisk and regulatory practice

Genome editing in Malaysia sits under the Biosafety Act 2007, and an edit that cannot clear regulatory review is a result rather than a crop. I completed the Malaysian Biosafety Officer Training (MABOT 3) and was certified as a Registered Biosafety Professional (RBP0030/2017) by the Malaysian Biosafety and Biosecurity Association — a five-year certification that has since lapsed and is pending renewal. I have served on MARDI's Institutional Biosafety Committee since 2015, with four years on the Biorisk Management Committee. That work has covered institutional notifications, contained glasshouse evaluation of transgenic grain corn, and confined field trials of transgenic papaya.

I have also represented MARDI and the Malaysian economy at the APEC High Level Policy Dialogue on Agricultural Biotechnology, on the benefits and sustainability of precision agricultural biotechnologies.