Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Cell Activities and Stress Adaptations (CASA Lab) was founded in 2011. The CASA Lab is located in School of Life Sciences at Lanzhou University. It currently has 52 full-time faculty and staff members including one Cheung Kong Scholar and other nineteen full professors working on multi-disciplinary scientific areas, such as plant science, cell biology, microbiology and biophysics.

The laboratory is focusing on the following three research areas.

1) Plant cell signaling and development.

The detailed research topics include Molecular Mechanisms Controlling Growth and Development by Phytohormones, Structure and Biological Function of Plant Receptor Kinases, Molecular Mechanisms Regulating Plant Sexual Reproduction and Development, and Biomembrane and Membrane Trafficking.

2) Molecular mechanisms of stress adaptations.

The main research topics include Molecular Mechanisms of Stress Adaptations of Plant Cell, Plant-Microbe Interactions, Biodiversity and Stress Adaptation of Extremophiles, and Proteomics of Stress Adaptations.

3) Cell and genetic engineering.

This division will focus on the researches of Genetic Engineering and Agricultural Applications of Stress Resistance Genes, Pollution Remediation by Microbes, and Exploit and Application of Special Microbe Resources in Northwestern China.