Jialing was born in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China. She is jointly trained by the CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences (CEMPS), Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, and received her Ph.D. in July 2024. Her research background focuses on plant specialized metabolism, particularly the biosynthesis, regulation, and evolution of natural products produced through secondary metabolic pathways. These compounds enable plants to adapt to complex ecological environments and have potential applications in medicine, food, and agriculture. During her doctoral studies, she elucidated the enantioselective biosynthesis of axial-chiral biaryls in cotton, characterized neofunctionalized proteins and enzymes, and investigated the transcriptional regulatory networks of terpenoid metabolites. After graduation, She joined the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT as a Postdoctoral Associate in September 2024, contributing to plant synthetic biology and biological nitrogen fixation.

As a Postdoctoral Associate in the Stephanopoulos Lab at MIT, she is using acid whey to engineer the oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica to enhance its production of carotenoids. Her work aims to develop sustainable bioprocesses by converting the undesirable byproduct into valuable natural compounds.

Selected Publication:

1. Lin, J. L.#, Fang, X., Li, J. X., Chen, Z. W., Wu, W. K., Guo, X. X., Liu, N. J., Huang, J. F., Chen, F. Y., Wang, L. J., Xu, B., Martin, C., Chen, X. Y.*, & Huang, J. Q*. Dirigent gene editing of gossypol enantiomers for toxicity-depleted cotton seeds. 2023 Nature Plants, 9(4), 605–615.
2. Lin, J. L.#, Chen, L.#, Wu, W. K., Guo, X. X., Yu, C. H., Xu, M., Nie, G. B., Dun, J. L., Li, Y., Xu, B., Wang, L. J., Chen, X. Y., Gao, W.*, & Huang, J. Q*. Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals a hierarchical transcriptional regulatory network of terpenoid biosynthesis in cotton secretory glandular cells. 2023 Molecular Plant, 16(12), 1990–2003.
3. Wu, W.K.#, Nie, G.B.#, Lin, J.L.#, Huang, J.F.#, Guo, X.X., Chen, M., Fang, X., Mao, Y.B., Li, Y., Wang, L.J., Tao, X.Y., Gao, Y., Yang, Z.R., Huang, J.Q.* Regulation of glandular size and phytoalexin biosynthesis by a negative feedback loop in cotton. 2024 Advanced Science, 2024 11, 2403059.
4. Lin, J. L.#, Wu, W. K.#, Nie, G. B.#, Li, J. X., Fang, X., Sheng, Y. G., Wang, M. M., Zheng, Q. Y., Guo, X. X., Huang, J. F., Ma, L. Y., Wang, L. J., Liu, J. X., Wang, S. S., Xu, B., Gao, Y. Q., Li, Y., Wang, D., Martin, C, Chen, X. Y. & Huang, J. Q.*A dirigent protein redirects extracellular terpenoid metabolism for defense against aerial biotic challenges. 2025 Nature Communications, Accepted.