Research Programs

What we Think and Do drives innovation in plant improvement, data-driven plant science and resilient agricultural systems.

Learn more about our interdisciplinary research teams and their extraordinary impact.

N.C. PSI RESEARCH PROGRAMS

PSI-Hosted Centers and Consortiums
Multi-Institutional PSI Research Programs
Labs in the Plant Sciences Building
Seed-funding Projects (GRIP4PSI)

PSI-Hosted Centers and Consortiums

Center for Environmental Farming Systems

Creating a future of vibrant farms, resilient ecosystems and strong communities

Director, NC State: Michelle Schroeder-Moreno

CEFS is one of the nation’s most important centers for research, extension and education in sustainable agriculture and community-based food systems. As a longstanding partnership among NC State and NC A&T State universities and the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, it is recognized as a national and international leader in the local foods movement and celebrated for its work in building consensus around policies, multidisciplinary and systems-based research, and innovative Extension and outreach programs. CEFS’ Field Research, Education and Outreach Facility at Cherry Research Farm in Goldsboro is one of the nation’s leading research and demonstration sites for large-scale sustainable agriculture research across commodity, specialty crops and pasture-based livestock systems. It includes six research units.

Center of Excellence for Regulatory Science in Agriculture

Advancing knowledge, transparency, and public acceptance of regulatory science in agriculture

Director: Danesha Seth Carley

CERSA collaborates with state and federal agencies, private industry, commodity groups, growers and producers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and academics to advance regulatory science in agriculture through education, research and engagement.

It provides an undergraduate minor and graduate certificate, continuing education training and internships in regulatory science and research for the advancement of regulatory science in agriculture.

CERSA is co-led by NC State and Louisiana State University.

Controlled Environment Agriculture Coalition

Industry-focused, cost-effective and sustainable solutions to plant production

Director: Ricardo Hernandez

Comprised of research scientists, engineers and in close partnership with industry, the CEA Coalition aims to develop controlled environment agriculture (CEA) as an economically and environmentally sustainable option for agricultural practices by performing evidence-based, transformative research.

Genome Editing Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Accelerating the pace of genome editing in plants and empowering the agricultural industry to adapt quickly

Director: Timothy Kelliher

The GEC will play a pivotal role in shaping a prosperous, sustainable food supply for all. By developing new plant genome-editing tools, the center accelerates the path from scientific discovery to farm-ready innovation, while actively spinning out new companies to ensure these technologies reach the growers who need them most.

Precision Sustainable Agriculture Network

Nationwide project on cover crops to improve agricultural sustainability

Co-Director: Chris Reberg-Horton

This is a five-year, $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to improve the sustainability and profitability of agriculture by advancing the study and use of cover crops such as rye, clover and radishes.

The interdisciplinary team includes experts from 36 institutions.

Science and Technologies for Phosphorus Sustainability (STEPS) Center

Interdisciplinary research community focused on phosphorus sustainability 

Director: Jacob Jones

Funded by the National Science Foundation, the STEPS Center is a convergent research group addressing the complex challenges in phosphorus sustainability by integrating disciplinary contributions across the physical, life, social, and economic sciences. Although headquartered in the new Plant Sciences Building, the center includes researchers from 11 institutions across the country.

Multi-Institutional PSI Research Programs

AgNUE

Agricultural Nitrogen Use Efficiency Platform

AgNUE is an international research platform focused on improving how nitrogen dynamics are measured, modelled and managed in agricultural systems. The overarching goal is to enhance nutrient use efficiency in agricultural systems and determine the extent to which this can reduce environmental N losses — particularly N₂O emissions and nitrate leaching. The platform brings together expertise across field experimentation, data science and modelling. With funding from the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, this five-year project began in 2026 and has sites in North Carolina, Illinois and eight European countries.

AI2EAR

International Collaboration to Accelerate Integration of Engineering, Plant Sciences and Agricultural Research using Artificial Intelligence

This diverse collaboration seeks to support the successful integration of agriculture, life sciences and engineering to resolve scientific and technical gaps as well as social barriers with the overarching goal of ensuring global food security. The three research objectives include: sensor science, engineering and integration; data mining, machine learning, multi-scale modeling and AI models; and open-source data and network cyberinfrastructures.

Biocatalyst Interactions with Gases (BIG) Collaboration

Uncovering new methods for CO₂ management and sustainable fertilizer

Reducing carbon emissions and developing alternative routes for fertilizer production are increasingly urgent challenges facing our world. This interdisciplinary research collaboration between North Carolina State University (NC State) and the Technical University of Denmark (Danmarks Tekniske Universitet, DTU) is funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF) and will receive 50 million Danish Kroner (DKK), approximately $6.5 million, in funding over five years.

Collaborative Crop Resilience Program

Interdisciplinary research program targets wheat microbes for resiliency

Amy Grunden is leading a six-year, $30 million study on the wheat microbiome to make the staple crop more resilient against environmental stresses while reducing the need for chemical treatments and irrigation. The project is supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

The University of Copenhagen, Aarhus University and the Technical University of Denmark will collaborate on the project.

REFRAME

Resource Engineering Framework for Responsible, Augmented Modeling Engagement

Principal Investigator: Daniela Jones 

The REFRAME project is building a modular, AI-enabled, open-source platform that connects legacy scientific models, novel AI surrogate models and large language model tools to evaluate agricultural and food-processing biomass — starting with cotton residue and expanding to streams like sweetpotato tops and swine and poultry manure — for their potential as biofuel or bioproduct feedstocks. The platform gives researchers, industry, farmers and policymakers a shared, feedstock-agnostic tool for identifying which underused residues are worth investing in, and where.

With funding from Schmidt Sciences through the Virtual Institute on Feedstocks of the Future (VIFF), this four-year project began in 2026 and collaborates with Idaho National Laboratory and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

SAPLINGS

System Approach to Promote Learning and Innovation for the Next Generations

NC State is co-leading a 5-year, $18 million USDA grant alongside fellow land-grant university N.C. A&T and six other 1890s universities, various national organizations, USDA and private companies. The program aims to grow the number of underrepresented minority students in the food, agriculture, natural resources and human sciences. NC State’s portion, co-led by Cranos Williams and Jon Allen, will create a fellowship program for two graduate students, four undergraduate students and two high school interns. The PSI extension agent network will also receive significant funding to train agents in AI tools..

Labs in the Plant Sciences Building

EnBiSys Lab

Driving the next revolution in plant science and agriculture data analytics

Director: Cranos Williams

The EnBiSys Lab is a highly collaborative, multidisciplinary research laboratory, focused on the development of targeted computational and analytical solutions for modeling and controlling biological systems. The solutions we develop are used to build and strengthen the transition from large-scale high-throughput –omics data to highly connected kinetic models in the post-genomic era; models that can be used to attain the depth, understanding, and comprehension needed to manipulate and control biological systems for a defined purpose.

Forest Biotech Group

34 years of research innovation in forest biotechnology

Founded in 1988, the Forest Biotech Group (FBG) is dedicated to research innovations in forest biotechnology and molecular genetics of tree metabolism to improve growth, development and defense against biotic and abiotic stresses. Their research goal is the domestication of forest trees for conservation and productivity through a systems-level approach.

Gage Lab

Improving crop varieties through genomics and high throughput phenotyping

Principal Investigator: Joe Gage

Joe Gage’s research program is focused on linking crop genomic and phenomics to understand how to develop more resilient and productive crop varieties. Current projects include studying how sequence variation controls gene regulation; how gene regulation contributes to genotype-by-environment interactions; and novel methods for processing and interpreting high throughput phenotyping data.

Genetics, Evolution and Metabolism of Maize Adaptation (GEMMA) Lab

Understanding plants have developed to adapt to soils with low nutrient availability

Principal Investigator: Rubén Rellán-Álvarez

The GEMMA lab works on the genetics, evolution and metabolism of maize adaptation to different environments with the ultimate goal of discovering beneficial genetic variation that can be used to help develop more efficient, resilient and sustainable corn varieties.

Interdisciplinary Risk Sciences Research Group

Understanding, managing and communicating complex environmental health risks in a post-2020 world

Principal Investigator: Khara Grieger

To reduce risks and better align benefits with societal values, needs, and expectations, new approaches are urgently needed. Scientists, researchers, industry, government, and other actors will naturally turn towards the development of new technological solutions and products of innovation to secure safe and sustainable futures. At the same time, new innovations and novel technologies can also present unknown risks as well as controversies in society. Well-known examples include first generation of genetically-modified organisms, nanotechnology, geoengineering, new materials for environmental remediation, and even new vaccines. Working interdisciplinarily within science, technology, social sciences, and governance, the Risk Sciences Research Group aims to strategically incorporate practices that foster responsible and sustainable innovation in order to ultimately solve our grand challenges without creating additional challenges themselves.

Long Lab

Understanding plant iron deprivation to address global nutritional outcomes

Principal Investigator: Terri Long

Anemia induced by iron deficiency is one of the most prevalent nutritional disorders in the world. Their research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms that plants use to uptake, transport, and utilize iron, and respond to low iron conditions. Using genomics, molecular biology and genetics, their work is focused on identifying iron deficiency response regulators and their corresponding gene targets, with the long-term goal of elucidating gene regulatory networks involved in plant iron homeostasis. Ultimately, this information may lead to the generation of crops with increased nutritional content and increased yield when grown in poor soils.

Maize Breeding and Genetics Collaboration

Corn breeding and genetics project of the USDA-Agricultural Research Service

Principal Investigator: Jim Holland

This collaborative team aims to characterize the genes underlying important agricultural traits in maize (corn) to develop new breeding lines. Two specific research foci are to improve resistance to Fusarium ear rot in corn and to develop new specialty food corn varieties, including improved heirloom food corns and low protein grain corns for patients with metabolic disorders.

NC State Vegetable Pathology Lab

Studying diseases to improve disease management for farmers

Principal Investigator: Frank J. Louws

This lab leads interdisciplinary studies of diseases of cucurbit crops and sweetpotatoes to deliver novel and improved disease management strategies to growers in North Carolina and to advance our knowledge in the field of vegetable pathology.

Optical Sensing Lab

Making smaller, faster and more capable optical systems for plant and human health.

Principal Investigator: Mike Kudenov

The lab’s major research area is in spectral and polarimetric imaging as it applies to both remote sensing and biomedical imaging applications. Through incorporating novel Polarization Grating (PG) technologies into spectral and polarimetric sensors, the researchers in OSL are increasing the sensor’s spatial, spectral or radiometric performance, or reducing the sensor’s overall size or cost. An emphasis is given on the development of ultra-compact sensors with novel capabilities. From a remote sensing perspective, it can be used to quantify chemicals in the environment, perform quality control in industrial and commercial manufacturing processes, assess water quality and vegetation health, identify targets, and for mineral mapping.

Sihi Lab

Understanding how carbon and nutrients cycle through plants, soils, microbes, and the environment to inform sustainable land-use practices and address climate change.

Principal Investigator: Debjani Sihi

The Sihi Lab specializes in measuring and modeling soil organic matter dynamics and greenhouse gas emissions from natural and managed ecosystems. They couple data generated from empirical studies and environmental networks with process-based and machine learning models. They use biogeochemical models to evaluate the fate of soil carbon and other ecosystem nutrients in the face of climate change. Their work ranges from the tropics and subtropics to temperate and temperate-boreal transition zones as well as soils from forests, wetlands, grasslands, and agricultural landscapes.

Sozzani Lab

Understanding plant stem cells using 3D bioprinting and other innovations for plant improvement

Principal Investigator: Ross Sozzani

The Sozzani Lab research focuses on understanding how stem cells are organized and maintained in the root of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Their goal is to gain a coherent qualitative and quantitative understanding of stem cell maintenance at the systems-level. Their research leverages techniques derived from molecular, developmental and cell biology, mathematics, physics, chemistry, computer science and engineering. Their research will reveal a specific molecular pathway of plant stem cells, and provide broader insights into the fundamental properties of stem cells across the plant and animal kingdoms.

Sustainable and Organic Soil Fertility Lab

Climate change mitigation and adaptation through sustainable agriculture and improved soil health

Principal Investigator: Alex Woodley

This research program is focused on the mitigation and adaptation to climate change in sustainable agricultural systems through improved soil productivity. Research initiatives include linking soil health indicators to productive agroecosystems, mitigation of soil greenhouse gas emissions, soil carbon sequestration and nutrient management of fertilizers, organic amendments and cover crops.

Member of the Climate Adaptation Through Agriculture & Soil Management (CASM) research initiative.

Translational Plant Phenomics Lab

Advancing the application of remote sensing, robotics, and data science in breeding a diversity of horticultural and specialty crops

Principal Investigator: Jing Zhang

The first aim of the Translational Plant Phenomics Lab is to use advanced imaging technologies and machine learning algorithms to make plant phenotyping more efficient for crop breeding. By integrating high-throughput methods, they aim to accelerate the selection process for desirable traits, ultimately improving crop resilience and yield. The second aim is to develop innovative strategies for precision crop management that optimize inputs and maximize outputs in agricultural production. Utilizing data-driven approaches, their research seeks to enhance decision-making processes, ensuring sustainable practices and improved crop quality.

Tree Improvement Program

Increasing forest productivity through research, breeding, and teaching the next generation of foresters and geneticists

Directors: Fikret Isik and Trevor Walker

The NC State University Cooperative Tree Improvement Program partners with the forest industry across the southern United States to improve the productivity, resilience and sustainability of pine forests. Established in 1956, the program advances tree breeding through innovations in genomics and quantitative genetics.

Wei Research Group

Innovating disease diagnostics by developing cost-effective sensing tools

Principal Investigator: Qingshan Wei

This engineering research group works to understand the fundamentals of optics, chemistry, and molecular biology for rapid and ultrasensitive molecular detection. They are interested in applying miniature sensor and assay technologies in precision / tele-medicine, AgBio research, environmental science and biomanufacturing.

Whitehill Lab: Christmas Tree Genetics Program

Cutting-edge research utilizing modern genomic technologies and approaches

Principal Investigator: Justin Whitehill

This program is working to advance North Carolina’s Christmas tree industry by addressing grower challenges and concerns through the application of genetic, genomic and molecular biology principles.