As the world continues to push towards a zero-carbon footprint and long-term sustainability, the existing greenhouse emissions in the atmosphere have already begun to alter our climate and threaten the health and security of our planet. At OIST, a multidisciplinary team of engineers, physicists, chemists, data scientists and oceanographers have joined forces to develop resilient responses to this changing environment.
We seek ways to understand, predict and ultimately respond to large scale weather phenomena and catastrophes, such as typhoons [Nature 587 230 (2020)] that pose an ever-increasing threat to coastal communities worldwide. By decoding how plants respond to pathogens and environmental stresses, we seek to engineer the next generation of crops with targeted resilience traits [Nat. Comm. 14 3248 (2023)]. Utilizing microfluidic sensor platforms [ACS Sensors 7 347 (2022)] to satellites, we detect environmental contaminants and understand pollutant cycles, including global CO2 patterns. To reduce pollution, we engineer plants that scavenge contaminants, design microbes to degrade pollutants [Nature 634 721 (2024)], and develop novel carbon capture techniques [Phys. Fluids 25 024101 (2013)].