UH Manoa
Research
Elias Zuber stepped in, keen and ready to share his research with the crowd at the 12th Annual “E Ho'oulu Haumana,” (the growth of students), a showcase event for the University of Hawaiʻi John A. Burns School of Medicine’s medical school’s Minority Health Research Training (MHRT) Program. His aloha shirt spoke volumes, with corn stalks printed across in alignment with his award-winning research on a high-throughput corn genotyping method. We caught up with Zuber shortly before the showcase began for a Q&A.
Just a few weeks prior to the MHRT event, Zuber and his fellow 2025 MHRT trainees including Robert Helmuth, Nicholas Miwa and Ken Awamura were in Texas to present their posters at the 2025 ABRCMS, the American Society for Microbiology's conference in support of multidisciplinary science and workforce development. Zuber’s abstract was awarded “Exceptional Poster Presentation” in the undergraduate division for biochemistry & molecular biosciences.
Check out the Q&A, below.
Q: First of all, congratulations on your award! What was that experience like for you?
A: Thanks. In my discipline there were about 320 students and 19 received this award so I feel fortunate. When my name was announced I was surprised as it was my first time at the conference and my first time receiving recognition like this for research.
Q: Can you tell us more about this project, in a nutshell?
A: In the lab, we focus on gene editing several tropical corn lines to induce early flowering in tropical and temperate environments. We’re doing this because tropical corn possesses unique genetic diversity but it can’t be used in breeding programs because it doesn’t flower properly on the Mainland under long day conditions. To fix this, we need to edit three floral repressor genes with CRISPR-Cas9. If we can make tropical lines flower under the same conditions as corn grown on the mainland, we can cross the two lines together to make hybrid crops with improved performance.
Q: What’s the overall goal of this study?
A: The benefit of this is pretty much, crop improvement efforts. We can make (tropical) corn grow faster, more disease-resistant and more nutrient-dense. My research, in particular, is just a very small section of our entire gene-editing pipeline. Once we've already changed these plants at the molecular level, I come in to identify very specific genetic sequences– where these edits are and the type of edit.
Q: I just noticed the maize on your shirt! This must be a passion project?
A: All the creative work is my mentor’s doing, Dr. Michael Muszynski of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience. And everyone in his lab, we all wear these shirts when we do recruitment events on campus and demonstrate maize genetics. It’s just to get people to learn how corn plants breed, how we edit them and teach them about what our lab is doing.
Q: Now that’s cool, I think that’s a fun way to help people learn more about the research you folks are doing.
A: It’s actually kind of a funny story because it did play a factor in getting me to join the lab. I had already applied for the position and then later I saw a tent at the UH Campus Center. I didn’t know this group of people were part of the lab that I would be joining because I hadn’t met them yet. And so when I first joined the lab, some of them remembered meeting me at the event.
Q: What has your experience been like as part of the MHRT Program?
A: I guess the word would be: Fortunate. I feel fortunate to be part of the program. It’s very well-structured and gives students, especially undergraduates a greater depth of understanding because a lot of what we do in the MHRT Program is to discuss what biomedical science is about and everything that goes into biomedical research. From writing grants to making poster presentations and presenting research, to learning what data is about, how to collect it and stuff like that. It gives undergraduate students the depth they need to fully understand what they’re getting into.
Q: How did joining the MHRT Program integrate with the work you were already doing with the Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences?
A: My research didn’t change when I joined MHRT but I did gain additional support. We have Dr. Vivek Nerurkar, Dr. Angela Sy, Dr. Alfred To and Dr. Rodson Zorilla, so we have four mentors. I got more guidance in the direction that I’m supposed to go in and I got more funding so, it’s all just a win-win all around.
Q: I’m glad you got a lot out of this program. What are you looking forward to next?
A: My goal is to work in biotech on a research and development team as a scientist. As of this moment, I’d like to pick up as much molecular biology experience as I can manage to accumulate as an undergrad to improve my chances of landing a reputable position.