Team Members

Contact Us

Dr. Abdul Latif Khan
Assistant Professor
Cullen College of Engineering Technology Division
University of Houston
Microbiome & Genomics Lab
alkhan@uh.edu


Spring 2025 Lab members	Summer 2025 Lab members

Lab outing 2025	Spring 2024 Lab members

Dr. Abdul Latif Khan

Dr. Khan’s is PI of the lab and his research interest includes plant stress physiology, plant-microbe interaction, and genomics. He focuses on elucidating mechanisms and biosynthetic pathways in plant stress tolerance during climatic changes. He also studies microbiome engineering to improve plant production systems with the least energy and carbon footprints. His lab is establishing a synthetic microbiome for healthy food and increased plant growth.

Dr. Eunhae Kwon

Dr Eunhae Kwon is highly motivated with expertise in the broad field of plant bioscience and a strong background in signaling between plants and microorganisms (crop physiology). She is proficient in the use of in vitro and in vivo techniques to conduct plant research, including metabolomic and genomic analyses based on microorganisms and crops. She specifically focuses on the melatonin synthesis and pathway in microorganisms and the interaction between plants and melatonin-producing microbes under abiotic stress

Nasir Khan

Nasir, a recent graduate from Texas Tech University, has joined our lab as a PhD Graduate Research Assistant. He is currently working on microbial seed encapsulation and coating to promote sustainable agriculture. His research focuses on enhancing the physical and physiological properties of seeds to facilitate planting, boost growth indices, enhance yields and quality, and mitigate abiotic stresses. Additionally, Nasir is interested in isolating, characterizing, and identifying extremophilic endophytic microbes to use these microbes to alleviate stress in crop plants growing under adverse conditions.

Suhaib Ahmed

Suhaib Ahmed is thrilled to begin his Ph.D. research focused on the genetic engineering of crops and microbiomes to mitigate climate change. His project aims to enhance the climate resilience of soybean and sorghum using advanced techniques such as CRISPR-Cas9 and gene overexpression. By investigating silicate solubilization, silicon uptake, CO2 sequestration, and ACC deaminase, he plans to boost these crops’ ability to withstand environmental stressors.

Christopher Yo

Christopher Yo recently graduated with a Bachelor’s in biomedical sciences at Texas A&M University. He is currently a student here at the University of Houston pursuing his Master’s in Biotechnology. His main area of study and research is phytoremediation and its potential applications for the environment.

Vy Nguyen

Vy Nguyen is a Biotechnology graduate student at the University of Houston. During her undergraduate studies, she conducted bioinformatics research on metal transport pathways in major crop species. Her main research interests involve microbiology, biotechnology, and sustainable agriculture.

Ruqaya Razvi

Ruqaya Razvi is a Biology undergraduate student currently researching synthetic microbial communities and their applications to seed encapsulation.

H Rafia

Rafia is a Biotechnology student at the University of Houston. She is currently researching the effects of silicon amendments in sorghum plants during cold stress.

Student of the Semester

Past Alumni and Scholars

Fulbright Scholars

Dr. Gideon Mmbando

Dr. Gideon Mmbando is a biotechnologist who uses genetic engineering to breed crops that can withstand abiotic stress. Before starting a remarkable career, he received his Ph.D. in Molecular and Chemical Life Sciences from Tohoku University in Japan. Dr. Gideon has worked in our lab Jan-May 2026. He is currently working as senior lecturer at University of Dodoma, Tanzania.

Dr Ali Al-Lawati

Dr. Ali is an Assistant Professor at University of Nizwa, Oman. He worked in the lab in Fall 2025.

Graduated Students

Dr Waqar Ahmad

Dr. Waqar joined our lab Fall 2022 and graduated with PhD degree in Spring of 2026. His work focused on plant stress physiology and microbiomes. Currently he is Post-Doc Fellow at Alonso Lab, University of Arizona, Tucson.