Jennifer Fang

Jennifer Fang is a graduate student in chemical engineering, creating advanced diagnostic tools to understand how plants respond to infection at the molecular level—work that could transform early detection and treatment of plant diseases. Her research centers on mapping microRNA (miRNA) expression in situ to reveal how different cell types within a plant leaf respond to bacterial pathogens. Jennifer designed a nanoliter-scale platform that isolates and labels miRNA for imaging, enabling the construction of high-resolution spatial maps of gene regulation during infection. She uses MATLAB to automate image processing, generate spatial heatmaps, and apply statistical models to identify patterns of resistance or susceptibility. As a MathWorks Fellow, Jennifer will refine this platform through spectral multiplexing and incorporate spatial machine learning techniques to uncover disease signatures across tissue types. These innovations could accelerate crop protection strategies and have broader applications in cancer diagnostics and biomedical imaging.