Welcome Dr. Carolin Richter, as scientific coordinator of the smartBioS project

Today, Dr. Carolin Richter joined us as scientific coordinator of the Indo-German smartBioS project. This project builds upon the successful Indo-German Public Private Partnership “2+2” project CuChi-BCA in which we had developed dual and triple combinations of plant strengthening, nano- and micro-formulated chitosan polymers with copper fungicides and copper/chitosan-tolerant Trichoderma strains with bio-control activity for a new and sustainable approach to plant protection. The combinations had allowed us to reduce the copper input required for efficient disease control by about half - which will allow to prolong the use of these currently irreplaceable plant protectants for organic agriculture in Europe. The companies involved in CuChi-BCA are now following up on these results, attempting to mince them into marketable products, where the main hurdle is the availability of sufficient amounts of high quality chitosans. To overcome this hurdle, we are now targeting defined chitosan oligomers - which we call “paCOS” for “partially acetylated chito-oligosaccharides” - and their combination with copper and Trichoderma, expecting that using oligomers instead of polymers should allow us reduce the amount of chitosan required significantly. Caro’s responsibility as the scientific coordinator of this project will be to make sure the work of the German and Indian partners of the project remain in sync with each other and with the currently rapid developments in this field world-wide, both in Academia and in Industry. Caro had obtained her PhD in our group in 2008 - one of the very few “summa cum laude” of my group in these past more than 20 years - and she is now rejoining us after parental leaves and different jobs outside university. Welcome back, Caro - we are happy to have you on board again!