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Publications

*: equal contribution

‡: co-corresponding authors 

​

For full list: Google Scholar

At Caltech

  1. Legendre MG., Muchenje K., Heredia A., Colee C., Wang Y., Pistilli V., Demirer GS‡. An extracellular contractile injection system for receptor-mediated protein delivery into plant cells. Nature Nanotechnology (2026). In press. 

  2. Muchenje KT., McCombe CL., Wang Y., Oz TM., Li. E., Saffron A., Demirer GS‡. Optimized R2 retroelement complexes for DNA insertion into plant genomes. Nature Biotechnology (2026). doi: 10.1038/s41587-026-03197-y

  3. Wang Y., Muchenje KT., Papikian A., Legendre MG., Leem E., Demirer GS‡. CRISPR-Associated Transposases Enable Programmable DNA Integration in Plants. bioRxiv (2026). doi.org/10.64898/2026.07.15.738807

  4. Li E., Berruto C., Oz T., Grillo E., Griffin C., … Demirer GS‡. Sentinel plants enable quantitative monitoring of bioavailable nitrate in soils and microbial environments. PNAS (2026). doi: 10.1073/pnas.2609666123

  5. Wang Y., Marken J., Li E., Tarr P., Meyerowitz E., Demirer GS‡. Plant Sensors for Detection of Belowground Soil Microbial Activity. bioRxiv (2026). doi.org/10.64898/2026.03.23.713735

  6. McCombe CL., Demirer GS‡. Fundamental and Applied Insights into Peptide Hormones Linking Nitrogen and Phosphate Sensing to Microbial Interactions. npj Science of Plants (2026). doi.org/10.1038/s44383-025-00018-0

  7. Li E.*, Geng Y.*, Khristoforova TR., Wang Y., Jones J., Demirer GS‡. Vacuum and sonication treatment enables efficient transient gene expression in various monocot and eudicot plant seedlings. ACS Synthetic Biology (2026). doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.5c00855

  8. Berruto C., Grillo E., Esturi S., Demirer GS‡. A 3D Printed Capillary Tube Holder for High-Throughput Chemotaxis Assays. J Bacteriol (2026). doi.org/10.1128/jb.00384-25

  9. Abu-Remaileh, M., Chan, C.J., Chen, L., Demirer GS. et al. Visions of the future of molecular cell biology. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 26, 735–740 (2025). doi.org/10.1038/s41580-025-00892-7

  10. Bian, C.*, Demirer, GS.*, Oz, MT.* et al. Conservation and divergence of regulatory architecture in nitrate-responsive plant gene circuits. The Plant Cell, 37(6), (2025). doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koaf124

  11. Legendre M., Pistilli V., Demirer GS‡. Chemical conjugation innovations for protein nanoparticles. Trends in Chemistry, 6 (8), 470-486, (2024). doi.org/10.1016/j.trechm.2024.06.004

  12. Griffin C., Oz TM., Demirer GS‡. Engineering plant-microbe communication for plant nutrient use efficiency. Current Opinion in Biotechnology, 88, 103150, (2024). doi.org/10.1016/j.copbio.2024.103150

  13. Berruto C. and Demirer GS.‡ Engineering agricultural soil microbiomes and predicting plant phenotypes. Trends in Microbiology, 32 (9), 858-873, (2024). doi.org/10.1016/j.tim.2024.02.003

  14. Krasley AT.*, Li E.*, Galeana JM., Bulumulla C., Beyene AG.‡, Demirer GS.‡ Carbon nanomaterial fluorescent probes and their biological applications. Chemical Reviews, 124 (6), (2024). doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemrev.3c00581

  15. Lowry G.*, Giraldo JP.*, Steinmetz N.*, Avellan A., Demirer GS et al. Towards realizing nano-enabled precision delivery in plants. Nature Nanotechnology, 19 (9), 1255-1269, (2024). doi.org/10.1038/s41565-024-01667-5

  16. Demirer GS.*, Gibson D.*, Yue X., Pan K., Cantó-Pastor A. et al. Phosphate deprivation-induced changes in tomato are mediated by an interaction between brassinosteroid signaling and zinc. New Phytologist, 239 (4), 1368-1383,(2023). doi.org/10.1111/nph.19007

  17. Wang Y. and Demirer GS‡. Synthetic Biology for Plant Genetic Engineering and Molecular Farming. Trends in Biotechnology, 41 (9), 1182-1198, (2023). doi.org/10.1016/j.tibtech.2023.03.007

  18. Demirer GS‡. Detecting and quantifying nanoparticle-mediated biomolecule delivery in plants. Nature Reviews Methods Primers, 3 (1), 16, (2023). doi.org/10.1038/s43586-023-00213-2

  19. Legendre M., and Demirer GS‡. Improving crop genetic transformation to feed the world. Trends in Biotechnology, 41 (3), 264-266, (2022). doi.org/10.1016/j.tibtech.2022.12.002

  20. Rustgi S.‡, Naveed S., Windham J., Zhang H., and Demirer GS.‡ Plant biomacromolecule delivery methods in the 21st century. Frontiers in Genome Editing, 4, 1011934, (2022). doi.org/10.3389/fgeed.2022.1011934

Prior to Caltech

Peer-reviewed publications

  1. Bian, C., Demirer, G.S., Oz, M.T., Cai, Y., Witham, S.S., Mason, G.A., Shen, R., Gaudinier, A., Brady, S.M. and Patron, N.J. Conservation and divergence of regulatory architecture in nitrate-responsive plant gene circuits. bioRxiv (2023).

  2. Demirer, G.S., Gibson, D.J., Yue, X., Pan, K., Elishav, E., Khandal, H., Horev, G., Tarkowská, D., Cantó‐Pastor, A., Kong, S. and Manzano, C. Phosphate deprivation‐induced changes in tomato are mediated by an interaction between brassinosteroid signaling and zinc. New Phytologist (2023).

  3. Park J., Demirer G.S., Cheung L. Toolboxes for Plant Systems Biology Research. Current Opinion in Biotechnology (2022).

  4. Ali Z., Serag M., Demirer G.S., Torre B., Di Fabrizio E., Landry M., Habuchi S., Mahfouz M. DNA-carbon nanotube binding mode determines the efficiency of carbon nanotube-mediated DNA delivery to intact plants. ACS Applied Nano Materials (2022).

  5. Zhang H., Goh N.S., Wang J., Demirer G.S., Butrus S., Park S.J., Landry M.P. Nanoparticle Cellular Internalization is Not Required for RNA Delivery to Mature Plant Leaves. Nature Nanotechnology (2021).   Highlighted in Nature Materials (2021), C. Horejs

  6. González-Grandío E., Demirer G.S., Jackson C.T., Yang D., Landry M.P. Carbon nanotube biocompatibility in plants is determined by their surface chemistry. Journal of Nanobiotechnology (2021).

  7. González-Grandío E., Demirer G.S., Ma W., Brady S.M., Landry M.P. A ratiometric dual color luciferase reporter for fast characterization of transcriptional regulatory elements in plants. ACS Synthetic Biology (2021). 

  8. Zhang H.*, Cao Y.*, Xu D., Goh N.S., Demirer G.S., Landry M.P., Yang P. Gold nanocluster mediated delivery of siRNA to intact plant cells for efficient gene knockdown. Nano Letters (2021).

  9. Demirer G.S.‡, Silva T.N., Thomas J.B., Jackson C.T., Mortimer J.C., Rhee S.Y., Landry M.P‡. Nanotechnology to advance CRISPR/Cas genetic engineering of plants. Nature Nanotechnology (2021).

  10. Demirer G.S.‡ and Landry‡, M.P. Efficient Gene Knock-Down in Tobacco Plants Using Carbon Nanocarriers. Bio-protocol (2021).

  11. Zhang H., Zhang H., Demirer G.S., González-Grandío E., Fan C. and Landry M.P. Engineering DNA nanostructures for siRNA delivery in plants. Nature Protocols (2020).

  12. Demirer G.S., Zhang H., Goh N., Pinals R.L., Chang R., Landry M.P. Carbon nanocarriers deliver siRNA to intact plant cells for efficient gene knockdown. Science Advances (2020).

  13. Demirer G.S., Zhang H., Goh N., Grandio E.G., Landry M.P. Carbon nanotube-mediated DNA delivery without transgene integration in intact plants. Nature Protocols (2019).

  14. Wang J., Grandio G., Newkirk M., Demirer G.S. et al. Nanoparticle mediated genetic engineering of plants. Molecular Plant (2019).

  15. Demirer G.S.*, Zhang Hu.*, Zhang Ho., Ye T., Goh N.S., Aditham A.J., Cunningham F.J., Fan. C., Landry M.P. DNA Nanostructures Coordinate Gene Silencing in Mature Plants. PNAS (2019).

  16. Demirer G.S., Zhang H., Matos J., Goh N., et al. High Aspect Ratio Nanomaterials Enable Delivery of Functional Genetic Material Without Transgenic DNA Integration in Mature Plants. Nature Nanotechnology (2019). Interview and highlighted on NPR, popular mechanics, and C&E news

  17. Demirer G.S.*, Goh N.S. *, Cunningham F.J. *, Zhang H. *, Landry M.P. Nano-biolistics: A novel plant genetic transformation approach. Methods in Molecular Biology (2018).

  18. Cunningham F.J. *, Goh N.S. *, Demirer G.S., Matos J., Landry M.P. Nanoparticle-mediated delivery in plants towards advancing plant genetic engineering. Trends in Biotechnology (2018).

  19. Demirer G.S. and Landry M.P. Delivering Genes to Plants. Chemical Engineering Progress (2017).

  20. Del Bonis J. T., Beyene A. G., Chio L., Demirer G. S., Yang D., Landry M.P. Engineering Molecular Recognition with Bio-mimetic Polymers on Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes. JOVE (2017).

  21. Demirer G.S. *, Beyene A.G. *, Landry M.P. Nanoparticle-templated molecular recognition platforms for detection of biological analytes. Curr. Protoc. Chem. Biol. 8:197-223 (2016).

  22. Demirer G.S., Okur A.C., Kizilel S.S. Synthesis and Design of Biologically Inspired Biocompatible Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications. Journal of Materials Chemistry B (2015).

  23. Nazli C., Demirer G.S., Yar Y., Acar H.Y., Kizilel S.S. Targeted Delivery of Doxorubicin into Tumor Cells via MMP-sensitive PEG Hydrogel Coated Magnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles. Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces (2014).

Patents/Invention Disclosures

  1. Demirer GS., Muchenje K. Optimized R2 Retroelement Complexes Enable Precise and Efficient DNA Insertion into Plant Genomes. Provisional patent filed, October 2025, CIT-9388-P.

  2. Demirer GS., Berruto C. A 3D-Printed Capillary Tube Holder for High-Throughput Chemotaxis Assays. Provisional patent filed, October 2025, CIT-9387-P.

  3. Demirer GS., Legendre M. Extracellular Contractile Injection Systems for High Efficiency Protein Delivery to Plants. Provisional patent filed, October 2025, CIT-9390-P.

  4. Demirer GS., Li E. Vacuum and Sonication Treatment Enables Efficient Transient Gene Expression in Various Monocot and Eudicot Plant Seedlings. Provisional patent filed, October 2025, CIT-9393-P.

  5. Demirer GS., Wang Y., Muchenje K. Targeted DNA Integration in Plants by CRISPR-Associated Transposases. Provisional patent filed, CIT-9134-P. Patent filed, February 2025. U.S. Patent Application No. 30KJ-810004.

  6. Demirer GS., Griffin C. Engineering Biofilm-Based Bioinoculants for Climate-Resilient Crops. Provisional patent filed, CIT-9249-P, December 2024. Refiled in December 2025.

  7. Demirer GS., Berruto C. Identification of Chemical Targets for The Selective Enrichment of Desirable Bacteria. Provisional patent filed, CIT-9109-P. Patent filed, December 2024. U.S. Patent Application No. 18/972,482.

  8. Demirer GS., Legendre M. Genetically Encoded Delivery Vehicles for Plant Genetic Engineering. Provisional patent filed, CIT-9054-P, filed August 2023. 

  9. Landry MP., Demirer GS. Mature plant transfection using carbon nanotubes. International Patent App. 62/500450, 2017. US Patent App. 16/672459, 2020. 

  10. Landry MP., Zhang H., Demirer GS. Gene Silencing in Plants with DNA Origami Nanostructures. Invention disclosure BK-2019-044, filed September 2018.

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California Institute of Technology
Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

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