Meike receives NNF grant

Professor Meike Burow partner in DynaMo receives 4 million DKK grant from Novo Nordisk Fonden for project to build models for predicting light induced change in plant growth and metbolism in home gardening and industrial settings.

Personalize your food! – Local and sustainable production of kale with increased nutritional value

Recent advances in lightning technologies have revolutionized the development of indoor gardening solutions for cultivation of vegetables and herbs. However, full exploitation of the technological solutions is currently limited by poor knowledge of the complex biological processes behind light-induced adjustments in plant metabolism and growth. This project aims at filling this knowledge gap by investigating how light quality affects biomass and health-promoting phytochemicals. Towards building models to predict light-induced changes in plant growth and metabolism, we will develop dynamic light recipes be applied to optimize the nutritional quality of kale and related vegetables.

The knowledge gained will contribute to the development of means for non-invasive biotechnological manipulation of foliar chemical composition and growth in leafy vegetables. The expected findings will inspire new strategies to identify sustainable solutions for future production of nutrient-rich, fresh and tasty plant-based food in domestic and industrial-scale settings.

The project will is a collaboration with Dr. Saijaliisa Kangasjärvi at the University of Helsinki, Finland and part of the NNF project grant within Plant, Agriculture and Food Biotechnology.

The project will start in July 2021 and has a duration of 3 years.