Tania Zhang

​ I first joined the Adaptive Evolution lab in 2019 during my final year of undergraduate study for a short research project, which focused on predicting climate response in Arabidopsis thaliana using machine learning models. After a poorly timed gap year, I’m now returning to the lab as a Masters student.

​ My research focuses on the biosynthesis of polyphenols in native Australian fruits and berries. These plants produce many compounds of potential medical benefit but are underrepresented in scientific study compared to cultivated fruits. Through a combination of genomics, RNA sequencing and biochemical analysis, we hope to better understand the genes involved in these biosynthetic pathways and build a framework for predicting products based on RNA sequence data to aid in future investigation of non-model organisms.

For more information you can contact me here.