idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
With a prestigious Max Planck Fellowship (2025–2028), microbiologist Gabriele Berg from the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB) is launching a research collaboration with chemist Markus Antonietti at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces. Together, they’re developing a solution to soil exhaustion and infertility: a custom-made soil created in the lab from plant residues, enriched with carefully selected microorganisms. This biologically active soil is designed to restore microbial balance, support plant health, capture CO₂—and ultimately break the vicious cycle of soil degradation.
Internationally renowned microbiologist Prof. Gabriele Berg has been awarded a prestigious Max-Planck-Fellowship to launch a three-year research collaboration with Professor Markus Antonietti at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (MPICI). Their joint project, SHAPE (Sustainable Health through a Chemistry-Microbiome Partnership), pursues nothing less than a therapy plan for our planet’s degraded soils—with the promise of long-term, ecological regeneration from the ground up.
Professor Berg leads the Department of Microbiome Biotechnology at the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Bio-economy (ATB) in Potsdam and is a professor of environmental technologies at the Technische Universität Graz. She has long studied the invisible “engineers” beneath our feet—microorganisms like fungi and bacteria—and how they interact with plants. These complex microbial communities form the silent foundation of plant health by breaking down dead biomass into valuable nutrients and filtering water. Professor Antonietti, founding director at MPICI, has developed a proven recipe grounded in green chemistry that transforms plant waste into humus-rich soil in the lab—a substance that mimics natural humus—but forms in just hours instead of years.
So what can we expect from SHAPE?
A custom-made humus enriched with carefully selected microorganisms—an answer to a problem quite literally rooted deep in the soil, but with consequences that branch out into every aspect of our daily lives. For millions of years, microbial communities—including bacteria, fungi, and viruses—have created what we know as fertile, black earth: the foundation of our food systems. But centuries of intensive agriculture, monocultures, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and urban expansion have disrupted this delicate balance. And when soil loses its balance, it also loses its fertility—becoming vulnerable to erosion and desertification. In numbers, it means that 33% of the world’s soils are degraded, and in Europe, the figure reaches 60%. In concrete terms, this means fewer crops, lower yields, less carbon stored in the soil—and more CO₂ left in the atmosphere.
Berg and Antonietti are working on a way to reverse this vicious cycle. Their biologically active humus is infused with life from the beginning, creating ideal conditions for microbial communities to thrive—restoring health, resilience, and balance to the soil. It’s a down-to-earth solution in the truest sense: a new kind of soil, alive with potential and carrying the power to help heal the planet from the ground up.
Prof. Gabriele Berg
Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Bio-economy
GBerg@atb-potsdam.de
Prof. Markus Antonietti
Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces
office.cc@mpikg.mpg.de
Prof. Gabriele Berg
©Lunghammer/TU Graz
Biochar
©Manuel Gutjahr
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Prof. Gabriele Berg
©Lunghammer/TU Graz
Biochar
©Manuel Gutjahr
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