PolyMod: Designer Polysaccharide Modification

Project summary: Polysaccharides, typified by alginate or glucan, are carbohydrate polymers with a wide range of functional properties. Chief among these is their ability to modify the properties of aqueous environments with a capacity to thicken, chelate, emulsify, stabilise, encapsulate, flocculate, swell and suspend, or to form gels, films and membranes. As natural polymers from renewable sources they offer biocompatibility, biodegradability, bioadhesivity and nontoxicity, thus lending themselves to increased exploitation in the formulation of products for biomedical, cosmetic and food applications. This project will seek to deliver a blueprint for the evolution of next-generation polysaccharides with alerted physicochemical properties. This will be initiated by the design and implementation of structurally modified monomer units for incorporation into longer sequences