Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at TU Munich is Involved in New Leibniz Labs
Freising, March 21, 2024 - At its meeting on March 19, 2024, the Senate of the Leibniz Association made far-reaching decisions in various cross-institute funding formats. In a new format, the Senate approved three Leibniz Labs for the first time. Each of these labs will be funded for three years with three million euros. The Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich is involved in two of the Leibniz Labs:
- "Systemic Sustainability - Biodiversity, Climate, Agriculture and Food within Planetary Boundaries"
- "Pandemic Preparedness - Preparing for future pandemics by networking inter- and transdisciplinary research: One Health, One Future"
About the Leibniz Lab "Systemic Sustainability"
The Leibniz Lab "Systemic Sustainability" addresses the challenge posed by the rapid loss of biodiversity and ongoing climate change on the one hand and intensive agriculture and food security on the other. It brings together the relevant knowledge in science and society to promote the development and implementation of systemic solutions. With a total of 41 research institutions and 11 Community research clusters, it forms a central knowledge and consulting hub on issues of biodiversity, climate, agriculture and nutrition.
About the Leibniz Lab "Pandemic Preparedness: One Health, One Future"
The new Leibniz Lab "Pandemic Preparedness: One Health, One Future" combines excellent interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research from 41 Leibniz Institutes. For the first time in Germany, pathogen-oriented sciences (virology, bacteriology, mycology and immunology) are cooperating with other life sciences such as ecology, health technologies, health economics, food research and educational research. The aim is to pool research work in these areas to prepare for, prevent and respond to future pandemics and to make the knowledge gained available to policy-makers in the form of evidence-based recommendations for action.
We Contribute Our Expertise
"We are delighted to be able to contribute our expertise in the field of systemic food research to the two Leibniz Labs," says Prof. Dr. Veronika Somoza, Director of the Leibniz Institute of Food Systems Biology in Freising. "Our research goes far beyond the isolated consideration of bioactive food compounds and is based on a systemic perspective that also includes important aspects of sustainability and health research. Networking the inter- and transdisciplinary excellence of Leibniz research will accelerate the development and implementation of systemic solutions for socially relevant challenges," she continues.
Prof. Somoza works on the isolation and characterization as well as the bioactivity and bioavailability of flavor compounds. She researches how their complex networks determine the sensory quality of food and influence our health. To this end, she and her team are pursuing the still young interdisciplinary research approach of food systems biology.
Contacts:
Prof. Dr. Veronika Somoza
Director of the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology
at the Technical University of Munich (Leibniz-LSB@TUM)
Lise-Meitner-Str. 34
85354 Freising
E-mail: v.somoza.leibniz-lsb(at)tum.de
Press Contact at Leibniz-LSB@TUM:
Dr. Gisela Olias
Knowledge Transfer, Press and Public Relations
Phone: +49 8161 71-2980
E-mail: g.olias.leibniz-lsb(at)tum.de
www.leibniz-lsb.de
Information about the Institute:
The Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich (Leibniz-LSB@TUM) comprises a new, unique research profile at the interface of Food Chemistry & Biology, Chemosensors & Technology, and Bioinformatics & Machine Learning. As this profile has grown far beyond the previous core discipline of classical food chemistry, the institute spearheads the development of a food systems biology. Its aim is to develop new approaches for the sustainable production of sufficient quantities of food whose biologically active effector molecule profiles are geared to health and nutritional needs, but also to the sensory preferences of consumers. To do so, the institute explores the complex networks of sensorically relevant effector molecules along the entire food production chain with a focus on making their effects systemically understandable and predictable in the long term.
The Leibniz-LSB@TUM is a member of the Leibniz Association, which connects 97 independent research institutions. Their orientation ranges from the natural sciences, engineering and environmental sciences through economics, spatial and social sciences to the humanities. Leibniz Institutes devote themselves to social, economic and ecological issues. They conduct knowledge-oriented and application-oriented research, also in the overlapping Leibniz research networks, are or maintain scientific infrastructures and offer research-based services. The Leibniz Association focuses on knowledge transfer, especially with the Leibniz Research Museums. It advises and informs politics, science, business and the public. Leibniz institutions maintain close cooperation with universities - among others, in the form of the Leibniz Science Campuses, industry and other partners in Germany and abroad. They are subject to a transparent and independent review process. Due to their national significance, the federal government and the federal states jointly fund the institutes of the Leibniz Association. The Leibniz Institutes employ around 21,000 people, including almost 12,000 scientists. The entire budget of all the institutes is more than two billion euros.
+++ Stay up to date via our X (Twitter) channel twitter.com/LeibnizLSB +++