Our research interest explores the interface between biological systems, chemical synthesis, and material sciences to design new materials with emergent properties by harnessing the organism's own biosynthetic machinery. We call this approach: Material Farming. Our research focuses on combining cotton plants as "the organisms", the synthetic sugars as "the building blocks", and the fibers as "the materials" to create a new biologically-produced polymer design space.
We seek to understand:
- The underlying biochemical mechanisms behind the biological fabrication of modified cotton fibers at the level of enzyme involved in the directly related biosynthetic pathways and their catalytic performance toward synthetic sugars;
- Structure-function relations resulting from modification of the cellulose by the incorporated glucose;
- The biochemical regulatory mechanisms to control this process toward programmable 3D hierarchical biopolymers. We are also committed to developing new and innovative methodologies to make the textile industry more sustainable.
