Fellows Directory
Nam-Hai Chua
Professor Nam-Hai Chua FRS
Fellow
Elected: 1988
Biography
Nam-Hai Chua has made many original contributions to plant cell and developmental biology. He discovered the D2 protein and other chlorophyll–protein complexes related to the photosystem II reaction centre. With others, he demonstrated that the small subunit of RuBisCo is synthesised as a precursor on free cytoplasmic ribosomes and uncovered many of the details of its subsequent transport into the chloroplast. His laboratory demonstrated that the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter can be used to transcribe heterologous coding sequences in transgenic plants. This strong, constitutive promoter has become an important tool in basic plant biology research and is also widely used to express transgenic traits in crops.
His current work on the control of gene expression in transgenic plants is laying the groundwork for new advances in plant breeding. Nam-Hai serves as scientific adviser to companies and government-related organizations in several countries.
Professional positions
Andrew W Mellon Professor and Head, Laboratory of Plant Molecular Biology, Rockefeller University
Deputy Chairman, Board of Directors, Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (TLL)
Interest and expertise
Subject groups
- Biochemistry and molecular cell biology
- Cell biology (incl molecular cell biology)
Keywords
plant biology, gene expression, transcription factor, protein stability, noncoding RNAs