RCF project granted: Xylan Bottlebrush Polymer: Unimolecular Nanomaterial for Alternative Antimicrobial Solution (XylBBP)
The Research Council of Finland announced that they granted funding for the MADNESS PI Xiaoju Wang’s project Xylan Bottlebrush Polymer: Unimolecular Nanomaterial for Alternative Antimicrobial Solution (XylBBP). The funding of 600 000 euros closely aligns with MADNESS and we are thrilled to expand the scope of our research activities towards the xylan bottlebrush polymers.
Bottlebrush polymers (BBPs) feature with polymeric side chains densely grafted to a linear backbone, in high molecular weights. BBPs possess advantages that could lead to a paradigm-shifting impact in combating bacterial infections as alternative antimicrobial strategies. However, critical knowledge gaps remain in understanding the structure-function-property relationship for BBP-nanomaterials towards antimicrobial and antibiofilm bioactivities. Society is increasingly seeking sustainable alternatives, and there is a growing demand for biodegradable and biocompatible BBPs to align with a broad trend. The main goal of the project is to establish synthetic pathways for a new class of biodegradable BBPs, that will deploy the debranched xylan, in another term, a linear polysaccharide of ß-1,4-linked D-xylose, as the backbone unit, and at the same time will customize the macromolecular architecture of side chain for their utility as high-efficacy antimicrobial nanomaterials.
