Plants as biofactories, fungi as biocontrol agents
The Beutenberg Campus e.V. Science Awards 2025 go to Marianna Boccia for the best doctoral thesis and a team led by Hannah Büttner for excellent scientific cooperation
| Angela Overmeyer und Friederike Gawlik
On April 3, 2025, the Beutenberg Campus Jena e.V. science prizes for “Life Sciences and Physics” 2025 were awarded on the Beutenberg Campus in Jena. This year's prizes were awarded for the best doctoral thesis and an exemplary collaboration between several institutes on the Beutenberg Campus.
Marianna Boccia from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology received this year’s prize for the best doctoral thesis on campus. In her thesis, which was supervised by Max Planck Director Sarah O’Connor, she investigated the amazing potential of plants as biofactories for the production of valuable chemical compounds.
The breadth of her research topics must be emphasized. In one project, she transformed tobacco plants into miniature chemistry laboratories. Using synthetic ingredients and natural biosynthesis pathways, she created novel compounds that could contribute to the development of new drugs! In this way, Marianna Boccia impressively demonstrated that plants can be reprogrammed for pharmaceutical research. In another study, she unraveled the secret of saponins, a group of compounds found in nightshade plants. Saponins help plants to defend themselves against pests. Marianna Boccia identified a “scaffold protein” that is crucial for their production. When she genetically modified plants so that they lacked this protein, they became more susceptible to herbivores. This is the first clear evidence of the ecological role of saponins. This work has far-reaching implications for basic ecological research, but also for potential applications in agriculture, and has been published in the journal Science. A third project could revolutionize our diet: Marianna Boccia modified tomatoes so that they produce vitamin D, a nutrient that is essential for our health. Vitamin D in our diet is mainly of animal origin. For example, it is present in fatty fish. Through innovative techniques, including the use of an insect protein, she was able to convert plant cholesterol into vitamin D, paving the way for plant-based vitamin D alternatives with enormous application potential.
“I am honored to receive the Beutenberg Campus Prize for the best dissertation. This award motivates me to continue contributing to the advancement of knowledge in my field,” says Marianna Boccia. “The challenge of my work lay not only in the complexity of the research, but also in staying motivated despite the ups and downs of the scientific process and personal life. This award underlines the importance of perseverance, curiosity and collaboration. I would therefore also like to thank my mentors and all my colleagues, without whom this work would not have been possible!”
“Marianna Boccia’s scientific approach impressively demonstrates the fusion of different scientific disciplines – from mass spectrometry to identify new compounds to the use of biophysical assays and microscopy to understand protein interactions,” emphasizes Sarah O’Connor. This makes her a perfect fit for the motto of the Beutenberg Campus “Life Sciences Meets Physics”.
The prize for the best cooperation on the Beutenberg Campus went to an interdisciplinary team that investigated the protective effect of the soil fungus Mortierella alpina on plants in a joint study. The study was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS). The fungus produces bioactive malpinins. This newly discovered family of substances can combat harmful nematodes. Malpinins therefore offer promising approaches for sustainable agriculture.
Scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology (Leibniz-HKI), the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (Leibniz-IPHT) and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena were involved in the successful collaboration. First author Hannah Büttner, who completed her doctoral thesis under the supervision of Christian Hertweck at the Leibniz-HKI, isolated the malpinins and elucidated their chemical structure. Constanze Schultz from Jürgen Popp’s team carried out spectroscopic analyses at the Leibniz IPHT to visualize the distribution of the malpinins using Raman spectroscopy. Johannes Raßbach and Markus Greßler from the Institute of Pharmacy at the University of Jena investigated the biological activity of malpinins and their effect on nematodes.
Only the close cooperation between the institutions made it possible to comprehensively analyze the complex interactions between fungi, plants and pests and to develop new strategies for biological plant protection.
