Jiacan (Jessie) Sun

She/her

Microbe Matchmaker

I'm from: China
Current Location: Hobart, Tasmania
Position: PhD candidate, School of Natural Sciences (Plant Science), University of Tasmania
Field of research/work: Plant biology
YTS Years: 2025

Jiacan's Notable career moments

  • Started learning basic science stuff

  • Physics got hard, but biology caught my eye

  • Picked plant science as my major because I loved biology

  • Used fancy microscopes for the first time

  • Got my first science degree—exciting!

  • Moved to Australia, checked out new labs

  • Finished my second science degree

  • Hooked on plant molecules during time at a gene-editing company

  • Kicked off a big 4-year plant science project

About Jiacan (Jessie) Sun

Hi, I’m Jiacan, and I’m curious about how plants make smart choices — even though they can’t move or talk like us! 

Did you know that underground, in places we can’t see, there are millions of tiny living things around plant roots? These tiny organisms (living things) called microbes help plants take in nutrients, kind of like silent helpers. But getting help isn’t always free — plants have to give away some of their energy in return. So how do they decide when to say “yes” or “no” to these microbe helpers? 

That’s what I study! I work with tomato plants to understand how their roots and leaves send messages to each other, like a secret code, telling the plant when to accept help and when to stop. I use special tools to read these messages where I look at the changes in the plant’s genes. 

I started with a simple question: how do plants make decisions? Now, I get to explore that question every day in the lab. The more I learn, the more I realise — plants are way smarter than we think! 

Jiacan's Photo Gallery