ETSU’s Tianhu Sun, assistant professor of plant synthetic biology, was awarded a 2024 New Innovator in Food and Agriculture Research Award from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR). Sun was one of nine selected and will receive approximately $500,000 to support his project, which aims to enrich the nutrients in seeds.  

Sun and his team of undergraduate students and graduate researchers propose engineering seeds to be richer in nutrients. While seeds are full of energy, they severely lack micronutrients that are essential for the human body. This is an issue for disadvantaged groups who are food insecure and whose diets lack diversity.  

“That’s why we have different kinds of vitamin pills, supplements, right?” Sun said. “But for those in disadvantaged groups and developing countries, they cannot afford those.” 

To carry out the project, Sun and his team will metabolically engineer seeds to activate the nutrients within them. Sun refers to this process as gene editing, which is distinct from genetic modification, as the seeds already contain the necessary genes for nutrients — they just need to be activated.  

Tianhu Sun (Contributed/ETSU)

“They have the ability to synthesize capsinoids or Vitamin E, but those genes are not active in seeds,” Sun said. “We can use gene editing to turn on those genes, so we do not need to transfer new genes from other organisms, which makes them non-GMO.” 

The award money will support them for roughly three years, when Sun hopes to have successfully increased vitamins in soybeans. The team’s long-term goal is to transfer the technology to other crops. 

The project began in 2023, when Sun arrived at ETSU. After some preliminary results and undergraduate student involvement, the project will be presented in Paris later this month at the International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition. Undergraduate students will test the proof of concept using machine learning and gene editing.  

To Sun, the project is a step forward for child development, as many children take vitamin gummies to supplement the nutrients they may be missing.  

“They have a lot of sugar in that,” Sun said. “What if our diet could provide enough nutrients for kids’ development, then they probably would not need those gummy bears.” 

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