About 450 million years ago, plants started to colonize the planet. Unable to hide from challenging environmental conditions or run away from insects or herbivores, plants had to get creative to manage diverse ecological pressures. To deal with these challenges, plants exploited their own metabolic systems to produce natural chemicals that helped them survive, from attracting pollinators to deterring herbivores and fighting pathogens.

Some of the natural compounds found in plants possess medicinal properties capable of addressing human health issues. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, natural plant products have been used medically for thousands of years usually in the form of herbs mixed into cocktails that contain a diverse array of natural compounds. Today, a significant portion of prescription drugs have origins in plants or are directly derived from natural compounds found in plants.

Jing-Ke Weng, PhD, is a plant biologist and biochemist who studies the origin and evolution of specialized metabolic systems in plants and seeks to use the chemical diversity found in the plant kingdom for the benefit of human health. Dr. Weng’s research could lead to a better understanding of complex diseases and inform the development of new medicines.

Dr. Weng received his PhD in Biochemistry from Purdue University in 2009. He did his postdoctoral research with Dr. Joseph Noel at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In 2013, he joined the faculty of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, and the biology department of MIT as an assistant professor. In the fall of 2023, Dr. Weng became the founding director of the new Institute for Plant-Human Interface at Northeastern University.

Learn more about Dr. Weng’s work on his website, or his research page at Northeastern University, and follow him on LinkedIn.