Zhi-Yan (Rock) Du received his Ph.D. from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Hong Kong. For postdoctoral research at the United States Department of Energy-Plant Research Laboratory and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Michigan State University, he focused on lipid metabolism in photosynthetic species such as plants and algae, the interaction between microalgae and fungi, and synthetic biology in algae for high-value bioproducts. He began utilizing CRISPR for genome editing in algae in 2014. In 2020, he established his lab at the Department of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering, University of Hawai'i at Manoa. His team is dedicated to advancing synthetic biology in microalgae for valuable bioproducts, exploring symbiosis between microalgae and fungi, studying lipid metabolism in photosynthetic organisms and microorganisms, enhancing traits of tropical crops, and breeding and engineering for aquaculture.