Dr. Astrid Näther and Prof. Christoph Tebbe, representing the Thuenen-Institut (TI) in Germany and AMIGA partner, attended the EU US Environmental Biotechnology Workshop which took place in November, in St. Louis, Missouri USA.
This event was an occasion to present the AMIGA project through a poster entitled “Bacterial diversity in the rhizosphere of crops – Scaling potential effects of a genetic modification to biogeographic variables”. During the poster session, a general overview of AMIGA was presented to the participants as well as some more details about the TI’s work and objectives within the project. Among other research activities, TI as leader of the Work Package 4 on biological components of soil fertility, analyses the structural and functional diversity of rhizosphere bacteria of GM maize and potato and non-GM comparators and characterise the diversity of genes coding for ecologically relevant functions.
The Workshop is an initiative of the Environmental Biotechnology Working Group of the EU-US Taskforce on Biotechnology Research, a cooperative programme between the European Commission and the United States of America. The activities of the Environmental Biotechnology Working Group aim to provide a forum for early career scientists from the US and EU to meet, share, and learn research techniques in the area of microbial biotechnology from world experts to set the groundwork for future transatlantic cooperation and collaboration.
Participants of this workshop included senior scientists from Europe and the United States whom presented the current status of their fields and forecast research challenges as well as their opportunities. The workshop also provided time for all attendees to engage in open discussion to identify areas in which scientific advancement is needed and to plan the steps necessary for realising future research collaborations.
To download the AMIGA poster, please click here