CRISPR/Cas in rice & tomato
Multiplex guide design, DNA-free protoplast delivery and regeneration for trait improvement in tropical crops.
Serdang · Selangor · Malaysia
Editing genomes,
engineering
enzymes
,
for tropical agriculture.
I am Nazrul Hisham, a plant biotechnology researcher at MARDI Biotechnology and Nanotechnology Research Centre. My work spans CRISPR/Cas genome editing in rice and tomato, the biochemistry of bacterial β-propeller phytases, and the biosafety frameworks that govern gene-edited crops.
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Research streams
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Active projects
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Peer-reviewed outputs
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Techniques in the toolkit
Research focus
Four questions I keep returning to
The through-line is turning molecular understanding into tools that breeders, feed producers and regulators can actually use.
β-propeller phytase
Screening, heterologous expression, purification and thermostability engineering of calcium-dependent bacterial phytases.
Structure & phylogeny
Maximum-likelihood phylogenetics, homology modelling and in silico structural analysis to guide bench work.
LMO governance
Institutional biosafety review under the Biosafety Act 2007, and the science-policy gap around SDN gene-editing.
In the lab now
Current projects
Rice genome editing
Targeted edits in local rice backgrounds using Cas9 and Cas12a single-transcript-unit systems.
DNA-free protoplast editing
PEG-mediated ribonucleoprotein and plasmid delivery to protoplasts, avoiding stable transgene integration.
Phytase expression & purification
Recombinant production in E. coli and Priestia hosts with Ni-NTA capture and dual-pH activity assays.
Profile
From Michigan State and Tokyo to Serdang
Trained across US and Japanese research environments, I work at the intersection of plant molecular biology, protein biochemistry and Malaysian biosafety policy. I care about reproducible methods and about closing the gap between what the technology can do and what the regulations currently anticipate.
CRISPR/Cas9 & Cas12a
Protoplast transformation
Protein purification
Phylogenetics
Biosafety review
Writing
From the research blog
Reading Cas12a crRNA self-processing from a plasmid map
Why an array of direct repeats removes the need for Csy4 or tRNA spacers in single-transcript multiplex builds.
Cleaner Ni-NTA: fixing broad SDS-PAGE bands
Two culprits behind smeared phytase bands — low running voltage and insufficient wash imidazole — and how to remedy both.
Choosing a substitution model with ModelFinder
A short walk through BIC-based model selection and UFBoot2 support before you trust a species assignment.
What's ahead
Conference & seminar timeline
30 Sep 2026 • deadline
National Biotechnology Symposium 2026
Preparing a full paper on multiplex CRISPR assembly for tropical crop traits.
2026
MARDI IBC biosafety seminar series
Presenter on ethics, Malaysia's regulatory framework (Act 678, NBB, GMAC) and LMO liability.
2025
Regional plant genome-editing workshops
Hands-on protoplast transformation and editing-outcome analysis.
Latest publications
Recent outputs
- Molecular screening of Bacillus isolates for the phyC gene & in silico phytase analysis — under review
- CRISPR/Cas genome editing for tomato in Malaysian lowland systems — scoping review, in prep
- Dual-sgRNA assembly for SGR1 and CYC-B in tomato