REPLY: REassembly of fungal PoLYsaccharides for biocompatible interfaces (Academy of Finland)

This project upgrades fungal polysaccharides into functional matrices. Polysaccharide fractions will be produced into materials using industrial waste cell biomass and mycelia grown around plant residues, to obtain tailored biocomposites. Low-value waste streams from the Finnish industries will be converted into advanced, bio-based, and biodegradable materials. The polysaccharides will be thoroughly characterized to understand their function in a variety of matrices with differing physicochemical and morphological properties: bound and free water contents, viscoelasticity, density, porosity, and type of dispersed phases. The material properties will be characterized, the mobility of the matrices will be determined, and the interfacial morphology of the matrices will be characterized to predict their behavior in the macroscopic level.