鈥淲e need more sustainable materials. One of the unique properties of plant cells is that they photosynthesise; they grow by consuming carbon dioxide. One thing we want to investigate in this project is to what extent the material can grow by taking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,鈥� says Eleni Stavrinidou, senior associate professor and leader of the Electronic Plants group at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics at LiU.
Today, many of the materials we use come from the plant kingdom. But plants need to grow, be harvested and processed before they can become something useful, which requires a lot of time, land area, water and energy. In addition, this provides limited control over the final properties of the materials.
New way to develop bio-based materials
The main goal of the new project is to change the way we think about how we develop and use bio-based materials. Eleni Stavrinidou believes that instead of growing whole plants, plant cells can be used as building blocks in different materials, taking advantage of the ability to control plant cell properties at a genetic level.
Thor Balkhed
The idea is to reprogramme plant cells to, for example, control how cells attach to each other and organise themselves, and to create certain selected cell wall components.
Eleni Stavrinidou鈥檚 research group is developing bioelectronic technology to monitor and control plant health and functions. In recent years, she has also established a new research focus 鈥� developing engineered living materials based on plant cells. This will also be further developed within the framework of the new project.
鈥淚n this project, we want to establish a new way of developing bio-based materials, taking advantage of the information already encoded in plant cell genes. At the same time, we also want to introduce new types of synthetic genetic circuits and chemical connections into the plant cells, so that we can control them and give them properties that fit the intended purpose,鈥� she says.
Interdisciplinary project
The project gathers expertise from LiU, KTH and Ume氓 University.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not a project that can be carried out by just one project manager. This brings together four project managers with different areas of expertise. The unique thing is that the project brings together areas of expertise that don鈥檛 usually work together. This gives us the opportunity to explore a new and exciting research focus,鈥� says Eleni Stavrinidou.
Thor Balkhed
The other project managers are Professor Paul Hudson from KTH, who specialises in synthetic biology, St茅phane Verger, docent at Ume氓 University with a special focus on the mechanics and dynamics of the attachment of plant cells to each other, and LiU researcher Peter Ols茅n, who brings expertise in polymer chemistry based on plant materials.
A total of 30 research projects were awarded grants from KAW, and will share SEK 900 million. The projects are mainly focused on basic research in medicine, science and technology considered to have the potential to lead to future scientific breakthroughs. In addition to Eleni Stavrinidou, Professor Johanna Ros茅n at LiU鈥檚 Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology is also awarded a project grant.
