''Best Young Researcher Talk'' award for Nabanita Hazra
Nabanita Hazra, postdoctoral researcher in Andrij Pich's group, was awarded the "Best Young Researcher Talk" prize at the Leibniz Conference on Bioactive Agents (April 9-10, 2025, Großbeeren) for her presentation on bio-based microgels as transport systems for plant protection.
Sustainable agricultural production with reduced use of herbicides, pesticides and fungicides to reduce drought stress is the most important prerequisite for preserving our livelihoods. In this case, biocompatible and biodegradable polysaccharide-based microgels (pectin) as carrier materials play a decisive role in the uptake of crop protection products and the provision of delivery systems as well as in sustainable release. [1]
Pectin is easy to obtain from citrus fruits, sugar beet and other inexpensive raw materials. This is where the research of the Pich working group, represented at the congress by Nabanita Hazra, comes in, which she is pursuing together with Ulrich Schwaneberg's research group: They have synthesized a wide range of citrus-based pectin microgels by inverse miniemulsion polymerization, which allows flexible variation in the chemical structure, size and degree of cross-linking of the microgels.
The chemical modification of polysaccharides [2] will facilitate the integration of reactive groups that can generate covalent/cleavable or supramolecular cross-links by controlling the degree of swelling and programming the degradation profile of the microgels. Their synthesis methodology also allows programming the release kinetics of bioactive compounds from microgel containers triggered by the change in swelling degree in response to humidity fluctuations, UV-triggered cleavage of phenacyl cross-links or enzymatic degradation of polysaccharide chains.
The results presented by Nabanita Hazra are part of the Leibniz Transfer Project " GreenProtect ", which aims to further develop a sustainable release system for the production of healthier food with fewer pesticides. You can find out more about the technology on which the project is based here.
The Leibniz Research Network Bioactive Agents organizes the annual conference "Leibniz Active Agent Days". Each year, a different member organizes the conference, giving participants the additional opportunity to get to know the host institute. The conference features national and international keynote speakers from academia and industry as well as a series of short presentations from member institutes or associated partners.
[1] S.H. Jung, S. Bulut, L.P.B. Busca Guerzoni, D. Günther, S. Braun, L. De Laporte, and A. Pich (2022) "Fabrication of pH-degradable supramacromolecular microgels with tunable size and shape via droplet-based microfluidics", J Colloid Interface Sci, 617: p. 409-421.
[2] Y. Abdulkadir, T. Sassmann, A. Boes, F. Jakob, A. Töpel, A. Loreth, C. Rauch, A. Pich, and U. Schwaneberg (2024) "Adhesion Peptide‐Functionalized Biobased Microgels for Controlled Delivery of Pesticides." Angewandte Chemie, e202319832.
Photo reference: Dr. Bernd Rupp, Wirkstoffradio (https://www.wirkstoffradio.de)