The health and well-being of humans, animals and plants, and a stable climate, are major concerns of our time. The functioning of all ecosystems on Earth depends critically on finely balanced interactions among microorganisms thriving in interconnected habitats like soil, water, and the human body. The balance of these microbiomes is constantly challenged by environmental and anthropogenic disturbances, leading to ecosystem degradation, severe crop losses, or disease. Current therapeutics often target symptoms rather than root causes, using disruptive agents like non-specific antibiotics that can worsen conditions. Although these issues are of utmost societal importance, there is a critical gap in our knowledge of the molecular factors that control microbiome dynamics.

The Cluster of Excellence Biosystems Design Munich (BioSysteM) is dedicated to the creation of a vivid, interdisciplinary research environment that will enable the transition to a constructional design approach towards the life sciences. Designing complex molecular and cellular systems with programmable properties resembling those of living organisms will enable us to better understand life as a phenomenon, create living or life-like materials with unprecedented capabilities, and build the foundation for a revolutionary next generation of applications in the life sciences and biomedicine.

Today’s world is witnessing an ever-increasing number of older people. Aging is the primary risk factor for diabetes, cardiac, kidney, neurodegenerative, and skin diseases – among others. This dramatic demographic change poses enormous health and socio-economic challenges for societies, highlighting the urgent need to foster a healthy aging agenda.

Climate change and the depletion of natural resources threaten global food security and ecosystem stability. The Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (CEPLAS) addresses these great challenges through fundamental research on complex traits of plants and associated microbiota (holobiont) that impact adaptation to limited resources and environmental change. This knowledge is key to CEPLAS’s long-term goal of predicting plant performance and enabling the design of SMART plants with novel traits and improved environmental adaptation.

Our mission is to understand the molecular language of life. How do cells in the body perceive signals in their environment, integrate this information to make decisions, and communicate with one another to coordinate functions in tissues? By developing new tools to control signalling, we strive to accelerate innovation for health and sustainable agriculture.

Human health depends critically on the microorganisms associated with body surfaces, collectively referred to as the microbiome. In a healthy state, these commensal microbes together support important physiological host functions. In contrast, bacterial pathogens cause millions of deaths per year, with rising numbers, driven by antibiotic resistance and limited corporate antibiotic development programs. Preventing the spread and infection by antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogens (ARBPs) is essential for preserving fundamental medical achievements of the 20th century.

At the Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, we aim to create a global hotspot for the integrated study of collective behaviour across a wide range of species and across scales of organization. 

Despite significant advances, heart and lung diseases remain the leading causes of death worldwide. In addition, the success of current therapies combined with improved long-term survival and an aging society, has changed the course of disease and created new challenges that need innovative solutions. The development of targeted therapies requires deep understanding of the complex metabolic, (epi-)genomic and proteomic changes underlying cardiopulmonary diseases and a collaborative effort to translate discoveries.

Forests cover about 30% of the global land surface and provide many crucial ecosystem services (ESs) such as renewable resources production, climate change mitigation, water retention, promotion of human health, and protection of biodiversity. However, with rapid climate change, unprecedented disturbances, the introduction of non-native and loss of native species, large tracts of forests are developing into novel ecosystems with no analogue in evolutionary history. The extent to which these novel ecosystems can provide desired ESs and protect biodiversity is highly uncertain.

Plants are the foundation of terrestrial life. To ensure survival, plants have evolved effective and versatile strategies that cope with changes in the environment, ensuring robustness, i.e. the maintenance of function despite perturbation. Given increasing anthropogenic pressures on our planet, understanding the mechanisms and limits of plant robustness is crucial for developing effective, knowledge-based mitigation strategies to preserve plant-based ecosystems and ensure agricultural productivity.