Welcome to the Bakshi Lab at Wake Forest University 

At the Bakshi Lab (officially starting January 2026), we are passionate about studying how plants perceive, respond, and adapt to various abiotic and biotic environmental stresses, whether it’s flooding on Earth or unique stresses experienced by plants in spaceflight. Our research focuses on how plant stress signaling pathways shape their growth and development under these challenging conditions, with the long-term goal of translating this knowledge to develop multi-stress resilient crops.

Bakshi Lab Values & Mission:

We are a diverse and curious team of biologists committed to connecting fundamental science to global challenges. In doing so, we aim to contribute toward growing crops that can meet the nutritional needs of the expanding world population, and one day, sustain human life on other worlds. From genetics, physiology, biochemistry, microscopy, bioinformatics, cellular, molecular, and multi-omics techniques to spaceflight experiments, we integrate cutting-edge tools to ask big questions:

  1. What are the intricate mechanisms by which plants sense and respond to environmental stressors?

  2. How do different signaling systems, especially ethylene, calcium, and reactive oxygen species (ROS), interact to decide a plant’s fate?

  3. How can we harness this knowledge to develop crops that withstand multiple stresses, ensuring sustainable agriculture on Earth and beyond?