Rate My Professor Zhangjun Fei

Zhangjun Fei is Professor at the Boyce Thompson Institute and Adjunct Professor in the Section of Plant Pathology & Plant-Microbe Biology, School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University. He participates in the Graduate Fields of Plant Pathology & Plant-Microbe Biology and Plant Biology. Dr. Fei's research focuses on developing and curating powerful genomic resources and computational tools while applying integrative bioinformatics approaches to harness vast ‘omics’ datasets. This work aims at a deeper understanding of crop origin, domestication, and key agronomic traits. Genomics and bioinformatics have revolutionized plant research and crop breeding, with reference genomes central to advancing basic research, gene and QTL cloning, molecular marker discovery, marker-assisted breeding, and insights into genome evolution and crop domestication. However, single or few reference genomes fail to capture full genetic diversity within crop species. To address this, Dr. Fei’s group conducts comprehensive pangenome investigations into horticultural crops, enhancing genetic basis comprehension for origin, domestication, and traits to support biological discovery and crop improvement.

His laboratory builds biological databases and tools for efficient storage, management, dissemination, and mining of diverse ‘omics’ datasets, alongside large-scale genomic resources for research and crop enhancement. Notable publications include: Wu et al. (2025) 'Phased chromosome-level assembly provides insight into the genome architecture of hexaploid sweetpotato' in Nature Plants; Zhang et al. (2025) 'Refining polyploid breeding in sweetpotato through allele dosage enhancement' in Nature Plants; Chen et al. (2025) 'Graph pangenome reveals the regulation of malate accumulation in blood-fleshed peach by NAC transcription factors' in Genome Biology; Hu et al. (2025) 'Subgenome dominance in allotetraploid Actinidia valvata regulates RNA m6A modification for waterlogging tolerance' in Advanced Science; and Lai et al. (2025) 'Genome of root celery and population genomic analysis reveal the complex breeding history of celery' in Plant Biotechnology Journal. Dr. Fei’s contributions have garnered over 46,000 citations, establishing him as a leader in plant bioinformatics and genomics. He was recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher in 2021 and contributed to the BTI Tomato and Fruit Biology Group awarded the USDA Secretary of Agriculture Honor Award in 2014.