Rainer Breitling

This fully funded PhD will investigate how to design plant root microbiomes that support more productive agriculture with fewer chemical inputs and pesticides. The project will examine the chemical rules governing interactions among soil microbes. These insights will then be used to design synthetic microbial communities that are stable, functional, and able to support plant health. The intended outcome is a new generation of reliable biofertilizers, addressing the limitations of products developed through trial and error. The research connects plant–microbe interactions, soil microbiology, synthetic biology, microbiome engineering, sustainable agriculture, and food security. The PhD is a CASE studentship conducted in collaboration with MORF-Bio across the University of Liverpool and the University of Manchester. Supervision is provided by Francesco Del Carratore, Lecturer in Computational Biology, together with Dr Sharon Zytynska, Professor Rainer Breitling, and Professor Eriko Takano.