Plant Bioengineering
Currently, just four crops (rice, wheat, maize and potato) out of estimated 30 000 edible plants provide 60% of the world’s dietary energy intake. This lack of diversity makes our food system unnecessarily exposed and vulnerable to pests, diseases and climate change.
Our research aims to increase the diversity and resilience of our food system by domesticating local, wild and resilient plants nowadays considered weeds to be introduced in modern agriculture as new crops.
Most of our food comes from only a dozen of plants, making our food system highly vulnerable to plant pests, diseases and climate change. In nature, there are thousands of plants with potential to be part of a future diverse and resilient agriculture, but many of them contain unpleasant compounds. In our research, we are developing the wild plant Chenopodium album as a new crop. Its seeds have high protein content and were eaten in Denmark during prehistorical times, but contain bitter and anti-nutritional chemical compounds called saponins. We have established a unique collection of C. album from all over Denmark and characterized their protein and saponin contents. We combine knowledge and state-of-the-art technologies on plant molecular, agricultural and food sciences to understand and ultimately control the levels and structures of anti-nutritional saponins in this wild species while selecting for high protein content and optimal growth yields. Altogether, our research will serve as a proof-of-concept to demonstrate the potential of domesticating local wild plant species to diversify our food sources and support the green transition in our food system.
Interested in joining us?
Please contact Pablo at pdcardenas@plen.ku.dk.
Søren Bak (PLEN, UCPH, Denmark): Professor, Molecular Evolution of Specialized Metabolism.
Dirk Inzé (Gent University, Belgium): Professor and Scientific Director VIB, Center for Plant Systems Biology.
Poul E. Jensen (FOOD, UCPH, Denmark): Professor, Plant-based food biochemistry.
Antonella Di Pizio (LSB, TUM, Germany): Head of Research Unit Molecular Modeling.
Researchers
| Name | Title | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alexandra Sanfeliu Meliá | PhD Fellow | +4535331560 | |
| Beatriz Cavaleiro César | Research Assistant | +4535324365 | |
| Pablo D. Cárdenas | Assistant Professor | +4535333289 | |
| Sanskriti Vats | Postdoc | +4535328411 |
Funded by:
Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF) – Emerging Investigator
Back to the Future: Bioengineering an ancient-resilient plant for a food-safe future.
Period: 2024-2028
Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF) – Green Transition.
Crop for the Future: Taming a neglected local weed as a crop for food security.
Period: 2021-2023