About Us
About Us
Laboratory Overview
Our laboratory is part of the Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS). We are dedicated to advancing the integration of bioinformatics and modern agriculture. Focusing on deep mining of crop germplasm resources, functional regulatory element identification, and intelligent breeding design, we leverage multi-omics integration, artificial intelligence algorithms, and genomic innovations to build high-quality graph-based pan-genome platforms for crops such as foxtail millet, tomato, and proso millet. These efforts significantly enhance the efficiency of germplasm resource utilization. The laboratory currently comprises 3 senior researchers and 10 graduate students, forming an interdisciplinary, youthful, and internationally collaborative team.
Core Team Members
Prof. Qiang He, Ph.D., Supervisor, Principal Investigator
Dr. He specializes in crop genomics and bioinformatics-driven big data mining. He leads multiple national projects, including sub-projects of the National Key R&D Program and the CAAS Youth Innovation Program. He pioneered the development of graph-based pan-genome and super pan-genome systems for multiple crops, establishing new paradigms for efficient germplasm utilization. As first or corresponding author (or co-author), he has published over 20 high-impact papers in journals such as Nature Genetics (3 papers) and Molecular Plant, secured 2 national patents, and contributed to 1 industry standard, advancing the large-scale application of bioinformatics in crop breeding.
Prof. Peng Zhou, Ph.D., Senior Researcher, National Talent Program Recipient
Dr. Zhou focuses on big data mining and machine learning-driven precision breeding. He leads a National Key R&D Program project and has been selected for the CAAS "Young Elite Scientist" Program and the Ministry of Human Resources’ High-Level Overseas Talent Recruitment Initiative. Over the past five years, he has published 30+ SCI papers with over 3,430 citations and an H-index of 22. He has developed AI-powered tools for functional gene discovery and regulatory network analysis.
Contact Us
We welcome young scholars passionate about crop genomics, bioinformatics, and intelligent breeding! The laboratory offers an international academic environment, interdisciplinary training, and industry collaboration opportunities to explore cutting-edge agricultural technologies.
Address: Institute of Crop Sciences, CAAS, No. 12 Zhongguancun South Street, Haidian District, Beijing, China
Email: heqiang@caas.cn
Website: www.helab.bio