The Qi Lab is working in the forefront of plant genome engineering and synthetic biology. They develop plant genome editing and transcriptional regulation tools based on different platforms such as TALE, CRISPR-Cas9, Cas12a and Cas12b. They disseminate such tools worldwide through Addgene. These tools not only allow for editing plant genomes, but also enable genome reprogramming at the transcriptome level. They apply these cutting-edge tools in both basic and translational research in plants to ensure food security and safety. First, they use these new genetic tools to answer some basic questions in plant immunity and resilience under stressful environments. Second, they apply multiplex genome editing tools to accelerate crop breeding and de novo crop domestication to make high yield, more nutritious and disease resistant crops. Third, they employ CRISPR activation (CRISPRa) and CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) for engineering metabolic pathways, rewiring plant immune responses and developing synthetic switches in plants toward engineering better crops. These goals can not be achieved without collaboration. They are collaborating with other researchers to apply and use these tools in many plant species including rice, maize, wheat, barley, banana, Arabidopsis, Camelina, soybean, cucumber, tomato, potato, carrot, strawberry, poplar, citrus, apple and pear.  Their recent publications can be checked out at Google Scholar.