Jie has a broad interest in biosynthesis and regulation of phytonutrients and approaches for nutrition enhancement in crops. In particular she is researching the biofortification of crop plants to provide healthy food.

Vitamin D insufficiency is highly prevalent health problem, with approximately 1 billion people affected world-wide. Jie investigates biofortification strategies of vitamin D in plants, which are generally very poor dietary sources of vitamin D.

Jie is currently the Chair of the JIC Chinese community on site, also a board member of the EDESIA PhD programme, funded by the Wellcome Trust, to advance major aspects of plant-based nutrition and health. Prior to this she completed a Rotation PhD in plant biology at the John Innes Centre, funded by the John Innes Foundation, and studied Agronomy at the China Agricultural University.