Earth-abundant metal-containing photosensitizers for sustainable photodynamic inactivation in plant protection and food safety

In the world, the phrase ""we are going through a major food crisis"" is becoming more and more common.

This is because our society is faced with managing an exponentially growing world population and a decrease in arable land per person.

This rising demand for food in developing countries is at risk due to plant diseases induced by bacteria, fungi and viruses. At the same time, food is traded globally, enabling the dissemination of dangerous microorganisms worldwide.

Therefore, creating alternative and ecologically friendly antibacterial and antifungal treatments is essential to address the growing demand for safe and healthful plant-based foods.

EcoPDI aims to solve this current and critical problem by developing new earth-abundant metal compounds with natural ligands as photosensitizers for photodynamic inactivation (PDI) of resistant bacteria and fungi. For this, EcoPDI focuses on the ""Sustainable-Economic-Applicable"" triple approach.

Thus, this multidisciplinary project will develop new sustainable treatments that avoid the use of pesticides and employ sunlight to activate the antimicrobial activity of the compounds, will use cheap earth-abundant metals and improve the disadvantages of natural compounds, and apply the new photosensitizers directly to plants through the planned secondment.

EcoPDI includes both the transfer of knowledge to the host institution and the training of the candidate in new techniques and methods.

The findings have the potential to open up space for additional basic and applied research on PDI in plant protection and food safety.

This proposal responds to the European Green Deal which has as its objective to restore damaged ecosystems and bring nature back across Europe and reduce the use and risk of chemical pesticides by 50% by 2030.