Together for a future worth living – sustainability research and studies at the Potsdam Science Park

Potsdam, February 15, 2022: The influence of humans on the earth is diverse and complex. It ranges from the pollution of the environment by plastic and other waste and the overexploitation of natural resources to the influence on the climate through increased CO2 emissions. All these problems threaten the habitability of our planet and require the increased attention of researchers around the world and from a wide variety of disciplines.

At the Potsdam Science Park, scientists from various disciplines collaborate to develop solutions to some of the most pressing challenges in sustainability – and thus work together on a society of tomorrow worth living in for all.

Detecting and preventing microplastics in plants

PD Dr. Harald Seitz from the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology, Bioanalytics and Bioprocesses Division (IZI-BB), and Prof. Dr. Susanne Baldermann from the Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (IGZ) are tackling this challenge: Together, the two are looking for possible methods to detect traces of micro- and nanoplastics in plants.

Through their research, they are doing real pioneering work – and are pursuing a major goal: “The basic question we ask ourselves is in principle: What happens to plastic when it gets smaller and smaller? How is it absorbed by plants? There is still a lot of research to be done in this area. And since we consume many plants and thus potential microplastic particles with our food, this is something that should definitely be looked at,” says Dr. Seitz. When the ideal of plastic-free drinking water and vegetables will become reality is as much a matter of time as it is of the will to make targeted investments, the two explain – and are in favor of funding corresponding research, which could make it possible to detect and filter out microplastics in water treatment plants within the next five years.

How snow algae contribute to a sustainable food industry

Dr. Seitz and Prof. Dr. Baldermann are receiving material for their investigations from their colleague Dr. Thomas Leya, who also works at Fraunhofer IZI-BB and whose collection of algae strains, the CCCryo (“Culture collection of cryophilic algae”), now includes 524 strains in 177 species and from 101 genera from all over the world – from Antarctica, Australia, the Rocky Mountains to Spitsbergen. Snow and permafrost algae have been Dr. Leya’s specialty for over 20 years and offer a variety of uses. They could themselves make an important contribution to a sustainable food industry, as he says, because: Snow algae contain many of the particularly healthy omega-3 fatty acids.

Even today, a large part of the omega-3 that we consume through dietary supplements comes from by-catches of industrial fishing. A state of affairs that we cannot maintain for much longer in view of the possible overfishing of our oceans. For sustainable fish farming, which could help to meet our omega-3 needs in the long term without resorting to bycatch, Dr. Leya is working on cultivating snow algae as a feed additive.

Australian cutting-edge research – with impulses from Potsdam

The topic of sustainability also finds space at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (MPIKG) in the Potsdam Science Park. The Max Planck Queensland Center (MPQC) has just been founded together with the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart and the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane – the first Max Planck Center on the Australian continent.

The MPQC will be dedicated entirely to the study of extracellular matrices (ECM). These inanimate biological materials are found in almost all living beings, surround biological cells and perform a variety of tasks for them. For example, extracellular matrices signal cells to which tissue they belong, react to changing environmental conditions or store information that can stimulate or inhibit cell growth.

One of the MPQC projects will deal with the material properties of biofilms in order to adapt them to technical requirements. To this end, polysaccharides of the extracellular matrices of biofilms are synthetically produced and how the properties of the biofilms can be controlled and optimized are investigated. In the future, such materials could not only be used in medicine and microtechnology, but could also become important in architecture, for example to have a positive influence on the indoor climate.

With the right sustainability degree programme for a career in research, politics and administration

The commitment to sustainability in the Potsdam Science Park is not limited to individual research projects. The broad-based training of future generations of experts also finds space here – and the best possible connection to renowned research institutions. Since 2021, the University of Potsdam has been offering the “Climate, Earth, Water, Sustainability” (CLEWS) degree program, one of the first programs in Germany in which students learn to understand the climate system, water cycles, and other subsystems of the Earth in their overall context.

Thanks to the close cooperation with lecturers from top-class institutions such as the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), students are optimally prepared for activities in research, in NGOs, in companies with environmental relevance or environmental authorities. “The international students bring liveliness and refreshing curiosity with them. The lecturers share a lot of expertise here and it is fun to work together at such a high level,” explains study director Andreas Kubatzki.

These examples show how diverse the field of sustainability can be – and what a decisive role well-networked science locations can play in its development. In the Potsdam Science Park, researchers from a wide range of disciplines share their knowledge productively and pass on their findings to students from all over the world in order to optimally prepare future generations for the challenges of our time and future societies.

About the Potsdam Science Park

The Potsdam Science Park is one of the largest and most exciting science locations in the capital region of Berlin-Brandenburg. On a total area of 60 hectares, there are two Fraunhofer Institutes, three Max Planck Institutes, the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences and the Faculty of Human Sciences at the University of Potsdam, the technology and start-up center GO:IN with numerous start-ups and companies, the Fraunhofer Conference Center and the Brandenburg State Archive.

Here, cutting-edge international research, university education as well as research-oriented start-ups and companies combine to form an excellent community. Networking and mutual exchange between renowned research institutions and innovative companies are the focus of the Potsdam Science Park. With the fully developed, ten-hectare Technology Campus, new areas are available for companies to settle. Over the next ten years, 100 small and medium-sized enterprises and one anchor company are to settle in the Potsdam Science Park and around 1000 new jobs are to be created.

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Pressekontakt
Karen Esser
Referentin PR & Kommunikation
Tel. +49 (0)331 237 351 103
karen.esser@potsdam-sciencepark.de

Die Standortmanagement Golm GmbH wird aus Mitteln des Europäischen Fonds für regionale Entwicklung und des Landes Brandenburg sowie der Landeshauptstadt Potsdam gefördert.