The Department of Horticultural Science is pleased to announce that Kedong Da joined NC State as the director of the Plant Transformation Laboratory on June 16.

Kedong received his doctoral degree in horticulture and biotechnology from Shandong Agricultural University. He has advanced the science and practice of tissue culture and genetic transformation for a broad range of crops including: apple, pear, cherry, grape, blueberry, strawberry, cabbage, sweetpotato, potato, cotton, wheat, corn and soybean. He has worked as the director of the horticultural crop biotechnology center at Shandong Agricultural University and the director of the plant tissue culture micro-propagation center at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in Virginia.

The Plant Transformation Lab is located within the NC State Phytotron. As the director of the Plant Transformation Lab, Kedong will work with faculty, staff, students and industry partners to advance plant tissue culture, transformation, gene editing, and bioengineering research and development.