Project “Microbelix” takes a close look at the soil habitat

At first glance, the topics of nature conservation and antibiotics have little in common. However, a new cooperation project between the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) and the Naturlandstiftung Saar (NLS) shows that there are major overlaps. In particularly species-rich habitats, a targeted search is to be conducted for soil bacteria that produce new starting materials for antibiotic development. What is special about this is that the search for the bacteria is taking place within the framework of a Citizen Science campaign.