Mr Zheng Gong
ARC Grant-Funded Research Associate
School of Agriculture, Food and Wine
College of Sciences
Zheng or known as Tommy is a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Jenny Mortimer's lab and is a part of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants For Space. Tommy's research interests are in developing the synthetic biology and biotechnological potential of plants (model plants and duckweeds) through genome engineering. In particular, Tommy has a strong interest in advancing plant genome editing, development of viral-based delivery tools and the discovery of novel genetic regulatory elements in plants.
Developing tools for plant synthetic biology and biotechnology.
- Discovery of novel promoters in plants.
- Developing expanding the toolkit for genome engineering in plants.
- Discovery and developing ultra-compact genome editors.
- Using developmental regulators to improve plant transformation.
- Developing DNA and RNA-based viral vectors for transient expression of recombinant genes in plants.
| Date | Position | Institution name |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 - 2027 | Grant-Funded Researcher | University of Adelaide |
| 2021 - 2024 | Casual Academic Staff | University of Queensland |
| Language | Competency |
|---|---|
| Chinese (Mandarin) | Can read, speak and understand spoken |
| English | Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review |
| Date | Institution name | Country | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 - 2025 | University of Queensland | Australia | PhD |
| 2017 - 2020 | University of Queensland | Australia | Bachelor of Advanced Science (Hons) |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Gong, Z., Zhang, Y., Xia, D., Yoon, S., Crisp, P. A., & Botella, J. R. (2025). Comprehensive benchmarking of genome editing quantification methods for plant applications. iScience, 28(6), 112350. |
| 2024 | Gong, Z., Previtera, D. A., Wang, Y., & Botella, J. R. (2024). Geminiviral-induced genome editing using miniature CRISPR/Cas12j (CasΦ) and Cas12f variants in plants. Plant Cell Reports, 43(3), 5 pages. Scopus17 WoS16 Europe PMC16 |
| 2021 | Gong, Z., Cheng, M., & Botella, J. R. (2021). Non-GM Genome Editing Approaches in Crops. Frontiers in Genome Editing, 3, 11 pages. WoS30 Europe PMC23 |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| - | Gong, Z. (n.d.). Development of efficient genome editing technologies for crop improvement. |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Gong, Z., Chen, M., Zhang, H., Mortimer, J. C., & Botella, J. R. (2025). Evaluation of computational tools for predicting CRISPR gRNA on-target efficiency in plants. DOI |
Grants4Ag (2023)
UQ Genome Innovation Hub Collaborative Project (2023)
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