Publications

*: equal contribution

‡: co-corresponding authors

For full list: Google Scholar

At Caltech

2026

An extracellular contractile injection system for receptor-mediated protein delivery into plant cells

Legendre MG., Muchenje K., Heredia A., Colee C., Wang Y., Pistilli V., Demirer GS‡

Nature Nanotechnology (In press) 2026

Sentinel plants enable quantitative monitoring of bioavailable nitrate in soils and microbial environments

Eugene Li, Chiara Berruto, Tufan M. Oz, Elisa Grillo, Catherine Griffin, Yunqing Wang, Kimberley T. Muchenje, Jolie W. Jones, Gozde S. Demirer‡

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2026 doi:10.1073/pnas.2609666123

CRISPR-Associated Transposases Enable Programmable DNA Integration in Plants

Yunqing Wang, Kimberley T. Muchenje, Ashot Papikian, Mark G. Legendre, Esther Leem, Gozde S. Demirer‡

bioRxiv 2026 doi:10.64898/2026.07.15.738807

Optimized R2 retroelement complexes for DNA insertion into plant genomes

Kimberley T. Muchenje, Carl L. McCombe, Yunqing Wang, Tufan M. Oz, Eugene Li, Amelia Saffron, Gozde S. Demirer‡

Nature Biotechnology 2026 doi:10.1038/s41587-026-03197-y

Fundamental and applied insights into peptide hormones linking nitrogen and phosphate sensing to microbial interactions

Carl L. McCombe, Gozde S. Demirer‡

npj Science of Plants 2026 doi:10.1038/s44383-025-00018-0

Sentinel Plants Enable Aboveground Detection of Belowground Soil Microbial Activity

Yunqing Wang, John P. Marken, Eugene Li, Paul T. Tarr, Elliot M. Meyerowitz, Gozde S. Demirer‡

bioRxiv 2026 doi:10.64898/2026.03.23.713735

Vacuum and Sonication Treatment Enable Efficient Transient Gene Expression in Various Monocot and Eudicot Plant Seedlings

Eugene Li*, Yuan Geng*, Tuyako R. Khristoforova, Yunqing Wang, Jolie W. Jones, Kimberley T. Muchenje, Elisa Grillo, Hao Zhang, Robert J. Schmitz, Gozde S. Demirer‡

ACS Synthetic Biology 2026 doi:10.1021/acssynbio.5c00855

A 3D-printed capillary tube holder for high-throughput chemotaxis assays

Chiara Berruto, Elisa Grillo, Shrila Esturi, Gozde S. Demirer‡

Journal of Bacteriology 2026 doi:10.1128/jb.00384-25

2025

Visions of the future of molecular cell biology

Monther Abu-Remaileh, Chii Jou Chan, Leilei Chen, Gozde S. Demirer, Ana Fiszbein, …, Julia Pagan, Benjamin R. Sabari, Sichen Shao, Liming Sun, Jan J. Żylicz

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 2025 doi:10.1038/s41580-025-00892-7

Conservation and divergence of regulatory architecture in nitrate-responsive plant gene circuits

Chao Bian*, Gozde S Demirer*, M Tufan Oz*, Yao-Min Cai, Sam Witham, …, Ping Zhang, Rachel Shen, Allison Gaudinier, Siobhan M Brady, Nicola J Patron

The Plant Cell 2025 doi:10.1093/plcell/koaf124

2024

Engineering agricultural soil microbiomes and predicting plant phenotypes

Chiara A. Berruto, Gozde S. Demirer‡

Trends in Microbiology 2024 doi:10.1016/j.tim.2024.02.003

Engineering plant–microbe communication for plant nutrient use efficiency

Catherine Griffin, M. Tufan Oz, Gozde S. Demirer‡

Current Opinion in Biotechnology 2024 doi:10.1016/j.copbio.2024.103150

Chemical conjugation innovations for protein nanoparticles

Mark G. Legendre, Virginia H. Pistilli, Gozde S. Demirer‡

Trends in Chemistry 2024 doi:10.1016/j.trechm.2024.06.004

Towards realizing nano-enabled precision delivery in plants

Gregory V. Lowry*, Juan Pablo Giraldo*, Nicole F. Steinmetz*, Astrid Avellan, Gozde S. Demirer, …, Raja Muthuramalingam, Hanna Poffenbarger, Swadeshmukul Santra, Robert D. Tilton, Jason C. White

Nature Nanotechnology 2024 doi:10.1038/s41565-024-01667-5

Carbon Nanomaterial Fluorescent Probes and Their Biological Applications

Andrew T. Krasley*, Eugene Li*, Jesus M. Galeana, Chandima Bulumulla, Abraham G. Beyene‡, Gozde S. Demirer‡

Chemical Reviews 2024 doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.3c00581

2023

Synthetic biology for plant genetic engineering and molecular farming

Yunqing Wang, Gozde S. Demirer‡

Trends in Biotechnology 2023 doi:10.1016/j.tibtech.2023.03.007

Phosphate deprivation‐induced changes in tomato are mediated by an interaction between brassinosteroid signaling and zinc

Gozde S. Demirer*, Donald J. Gibson*, Xiaoyan Yue, Kelly Pan, Eshel Elishav, …, Shuyao Kong, Concepcion Manzano, Julin N. Maloof, Sigal Savaldi‐Goldstein, Siobhan M. Brady

New Phytologist 2023 doi:10.1111/nph.19007

Detecting and quantifying nanoparticle-mediated biomolecule delivery in plants

Gozde S. Demirer‡

Nature Reviews Methods Primers 2023 doi:10.1038/s43586-023-00213-2

Improving crop genetic transformation to feed the world

Mark Legendre, Gozde S. Demirer‡

Trends in Biotechnology 2023 doi:10.1016/j.tibtech.2022.12.002

2022

Plant biomacromolecule delivery methods in the 21st century

Sachin Rustgi‡, Salman Naveed, Jonathan Windham, Huan Zhang, Gözde S. Demirer‡

Frontiers in Genome Editing 2022 doi:10.3389/fgeed.2022.1011934

Prior to Caltech

2023

Conservation and divergence of regulatory architecture in nitrate-responsive plant gene circuits

C Bian, GS Demirer, MT Oz, Y Cai, SS Witham, …, P Zhang, R Shen, A Gaudinier, SM Brady, NJ Patron

bioRxiv 2023 doi:10.1101/2023.07.17.549299

2022

Toolboxes for plant systems biology research

Jihyun Park, Gozde S Demirer, Lily S Cheung

Current Opinion in Biotechnology 2022 doi:10.1016/j.copbio.2022.102692

DNA–Carbon Nanotube Binding Mode Determines the Efficiency of Carbon Nanotube-Mediated DNA Delivery to Intact Plants

Zahir Ali, Maged F. Serag, Gozde S. Demirer, Bruno Torre, Enzo di Fabrizio, Markita P. Landry, Satoshi Habuchi, Magdy Mahfouz

ACS Applied Nano Materials 2022 doi:10.1021/acsanm.1c03482

2021

Carbon nanotube biocompatibility in plants is determined by their surface chemistry

Eduardo González-Grandío, Gözde S. Demirer, Christopher T. Jackson, Darwin Yang, Sophia Ebert, Kian Molawi, Harald Keller, Markita P. Landry

Journal of Nanobiotechnology 2021 doi:10.1186/s12951-021-01178-8

Nanoparticle cellular internalization is not required for RNA delivery to mature plant leaves

Huan Zhang, Natalie S. Goh, Jeffrey W. Wang, Rebecca L. Pinals, Eduardo González-Grandío, …, Antonio Del Rio Flores, Rui Zhai, Bin Zhao, So-Jung Park, Markita P. Landry

Nature Nanotechnology 2021 doi:10.1038/s41565-021-01018-8

A Ratiometric Dual Color Luciferase Reporter for Fast Characterization of Transcriptional Regulatory Elements in Plants

Eduardo González-Grandío, Gozde S. Demirer, Wenhe Ma, Siobhan Brady, Markita P. Landry

ACS Synthetic Biology 2021 doi:10.1021/acssynbio.1c00248

Gold-Nanocluster-Mediated Delivery of siRNA to Intact Plant Cells for Efficient Gene Knockdown

Huan Zhang*, Yuhong Cao*, Dawei Xu, Natalie S. Goh, Gozde S. Demirer, Stefano Cestellos-Blanco, Yuan Chen, Markita P. Landry, Peidong Yang

Nano Letters 2021 doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c01792

Nanotechnology to advance CRISPR–Cas genetic engineering of plants

Gozde S. Demirer‡, Tallyta N. Silva, Christopher T. Jackson, Jason B. Thomas, David W. Ehrhardt, Seung Y. Rhee, Jenny C. Mortimer, Markita P. Landry‡

Nature Nanotechnology 2021 doi:10.1038/s41565-021-00854-y

Efficient Transient Gene Knock-down in Tobacco Plants Using Carbon Nanocarriers

Gozde Demirer‡, Markita Landry‡

BIO-PROTOCOL 2021 doi:10.21769/bioprotoc.3897

2020

Engineering DNA nanostructures for siRNA delivery in plants

Huan Zhang, Honglu Zhang, Gozde S. Demirer, Eduardo González-Grandío, Chunhai Fan, Markita P. Landry

Nature Protocols 2020 doi:10.1038/s41596-020-0370-0

Carbon nanocarriers deliver siRNA to intact plant cells for efficient gene knockdown

Gozde S. Demirer, Huan Zhang, Natalie S. Goh, Rebecca L. Pinals, Roger Chang, Markita P. Landry

Science Advances 2020 doi:10.1126/sciadv.aaz0495

2019

Carbon nanotube–mediated DNA delivery without transgene integration in intact plants

Gozde S. Demirer, Huan Zhang, Natalie S. Goh, Eduardo González-Grandío, Markita P. Landry

Nature Protocols 2019 doi:10.1038/s41596-019-0208-9

Nanoparticle-Mediated Genetic Engineering of Plants

Jeffrey W. Wang, Eduardo G. Grandio, Gregory M. Newkirk, Gozde S. Demirer, Salwan Butrus, Juan Pablo Giraldo, Markita P. Landry

Molecular Plant 2019 doi:10.1016/j.molp.2019.06.010

DNA nanostructures coordinate gene silencing in mature plants

Huan Zhang*, Gozde S. Demirer*, Honglu Zhang, Tianzheng Ye, Natalie S. Goh, Abhishek J. Aditham, Francis J. Cunningham, Chunhai Fan, Markita P. Landry

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2019 doi:10.1073/pnas.1818290116

High aspect ratio nanomaterials enable delivery of functional genetic material without DNA integration in mature plants

Gozde S. Demirer, Huan Zhang, Juliana L. Matos, Natalie S. Goh, Francis J. Cunningham, …, Abhishek J. Aditham, Linda Chio, Myeong-Je Cho, Brian Staskawicz, Markita P. Landry

Nature Nanotechnology 2019 doi:10.1038/s41565-019-0382-5

2018

Nano-biolistics: A novel plant genetic transformation approach

Demirer G.S.*, Goh N.S. *, Cunningham F.J. *, Zhang H. *, Landry M.P.

Methods in Molecular Biology 2018

Nanoparticle-Mediated Delivery towards Advancing Plant Genetic Engineering

Francis J. Cunningham*, Natalie S. Goh*, Gozde S. Demirer, Juliana L. Matos, Markita P. Landry

Trends in Biotechnology 2018 doi:10.1016/j.tibtech.2018.03.009

2017

Delivering Genes to Plants

Demirer G.S., Landry M.P.

Chemical Engineering Progress 2017

Engineering Molecular Recognition with Bio-mimetic Polymers on Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Jackson T. Del Bonis-O’Donnell, Abraham Beyene, Linda Chio, Gözde Demirer, Darwin Yang, Markita P. Landry

Journal of Visualized Experiments 2017 doi:10.3791/55030

2016

Nanoparticle‐Templated Molecular Recognition Platforms for Detection of Biological Analytes

Abraham G. Beyene*, Gozde S. Demirer*, Markita P. Landry

Current Protocols in Chemical Biology 2016 doi:10.1002/cpch.10

2015

Synthesis and design of biologically inspired biocompatible iron oxide nanoparticles for biomedical applications

Gozde S. Demirer, Aysu C. Okur, Seda Kizilel

Journal of Materials Chemistry B 2015 doi:10.1039/c5tb00931f

2014

Targeted delivery of doxorubicin into tumor cells via MMP-sensitive PEG hydrogel-coated magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (MIONPs)

Caner Nazli, Gozde S. Demirer, Yasemin Yar, H. Yagci Acar, Seda Kizilel

Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces 2014 doi:10.1016/j.colsurfb.2014.07.049

Highlights

Zhang H. et al. Nature Nanotechnology (2021). Highlighted in Nature Materials (2021), C. Horejs
Demirer G.S. et al. Nature Nanotechnology (2019). Interview and highlighted on NPR, popular mechanics, and C&E news