Climate change, a growing global population, and the depletion of natural resources are major challenges for food security. To meet these challenges, plant-based innovations are more important than ever. Rapid environmental change underscores the need for advances in plant and microbial biology to create resilient, resource-efficient crops.

What We Do at CEPLAS

CEPLAS conducts cutting-edge fundamental research to understand the genetic and biological principles behind complex plant traits, especially how plants and their associated microbes work together in changing environments.

Our goal is to predict how plants will perform under future conditions and to "program" next-generation SMART plants - plants with novel traits combinations and improved ability to adapt.

We are developing models that connect a plant’s genes, traits, and microbial partners to show how they interact—and how they can be modified to improve a plant’s ability to adapt to changing environments

CEPLAS integrates the resources of the Universities of Cologne and Düsseldorf, the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, the Forschungszentrum Jülich and the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research into an internationally leading plant science center that attracts world-class faculty and junior researchers. 

Beyond its research mission, CEPLAS promotes training of its members and provides novel forms of training for undergraduate and graduate researchers and postdoctoral scientists at the interface of plant and microbial biology, systems and synthetic biology, and theoretical biology.