Jian-Min Zhou is a Principal Investigator of Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology since 2012. He has been awarded as 2020’s Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement award of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and recognized as “Highly Cited Researcher”by Clarivate Analytics from 2017 to 2020. Jian-Min Zhou is one of the Co-Directors of the Centre of Excellence for Plant-Environment Interactions (CEPEI).

Dr. Jian-Min Zhou’s group focuses on mechanisms underlying plant innate immunity and genetic improvements for crop protection against diseases. Like animals, plants possess an innate immune system that is composed of two major classes of immune receptors to detect invading pathogens and a signaling network that control the activation of defense responses. Phytopathogenic microbes, on the other hand, have evolved means to counter host immunity. There are four areas of research in his lab: 1) Signal transduction mechanisms governed by Pattern Recognition Receptors (PRRs). 2) Mechanisms of Nucleotide-Binding, Leucine-Rich Repeat Receptor (NLR)-mediated immunity. 3) Improving disease resistance in crop plants. 4) Mode of action of antimicrobial secondary metabolites.

Dr. Jian-Min Zhou’s research has discovered for the first time a plant resistosome and elucidated the underlying mechanism. His work also advanced our understanding of signaling mechanism of plant immunity mediated by cell surface receptors and bacterial pathogenesis.