Members

DIRECTOR

Prof. R. Gross

Research in the laboratory of Dr. Gross encompasses a wide variety of projects directed toward development of new enzyme and chemo-enzymatic strategies and methods for the synthesis of polymers for a wide variety of applications. Chemists, biochemists, microbiologists, materials scientists, engineers, physicists and clinicians work in teams on projects ranging from enzymatic and chemo-enzymatic routes to monomers, macromers, polymers and bioactive molecules. Novel enzyme engineering techniques and methods for enzyme immobilization are used to develop efficient catalysts that function under practical conditions. From thesestudies our group is developing fundamental new knowledge in enzyme structure-activity relationships for polymer synthesis and degradation reactions as well as an understanding of critical design elements that stabilize and activate enzymes on surfaces and within macroporous resins

POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS

Dr. Jiali Cai

Dr. Jiali Cai joined the group in 2006 as a postdoctoral research fellow. His research interests are related to characterization of materials properties including polymers and nanocomposites. His present work is focused on characterization of those polymers from enzyme-catalyzed polymerization using instruments such as WAXD, SAXS, DSC, AFM, TEM, SEM, etc.
Location: RH819; Extension: 3408.

Dr. Thavasi Renga Thavasi

Dr. Thavasi Renga Thavasi, joined the group as a postdoctoral research fellow. He got his Ph.D in Marine Biology (Marine Microbiology) at Centre of Advanced Study in Marine Biology, Annamalai University, India. His current research interests are microbial biosurfactants and their applications. Biosurfactants are biopolymers with hydrophobic and hydrophilic moieties and these polymers can be used as emulsifier, wetting agent, detergent, antimicrobial agent etc. The goal of the project is commercial production of biosurfactants and development of novel products.
Location: RH723E; Extension: 3960.

Dr. Parag S. Saudagar

Dr. Parag S. Saudagar joined the group as a Research Scientist in 2012. He received his Ph.D in Bioprocess Technology from UICT (Formally UDCT), University of Mumbai, India. . He has more than 5 years of Industrial experience and worked as a Research and Development Manager with Zytex Biotech Private Ltd, India prior to joining the group. His area of expertise is developing processes for production of biopolymers, antibiotics, enzymes, therapeutic proteins and probiotics using submerged and solid state fermentation. His current research interests are microbial biosurfactants and their applications. Objective is to optimize and develop industrially feasible fermentation processes for production of novel sophorolipids.
Location: RH 731; Extension: 4070.

DOCTORAL STUDENTS

David Feder

David Feder joined the group as doctoral student in Fall 2005. He did his undergrad study in Control Engineering at Tel Aviv Univ. in Tel Aviv, Israel, and got MS degree from Polytech Univ in Systems Engineering in Spring 2001. Current research project is exploring the use of enzymes from the Cutinase family as biocatalysts in polymer synthesis.
Location: RH 619, RH 731, ext: 4070.

Wenchun Xie

Wenchun Xie joined the group in 2004 as an analytical scientist and lab management assistant. Her current work includes: instrument maintenance of GPC (gel permeation chromatography) with different mobile phases (such as H2O, Tetrahydrofuran, Chloroform) and LC-MS; sample preparation and analysis; data analysis.
Location: RH 817; Extension: 3813.

Manoj Ganesh

Manoj Ganesh joined the group in 2006 as doctoral student in Material Chemistry. He got his B. Tech in Polymer Technology at Crescent Engineering College, Chennai, India. His undergraduate research experience includes synthesis of biodiesel and biodegradable polymers. His current work involves novel enzymatic degradation systems.
Location: RH 713, ext: 3602.

Jing Hu

Jing Hu joined the group in 2007 as a doctoral student in material chemistry. Her research is focused on the synthesis of derivatives of w-hydroxy myristic acid and w-carboxyoleic acid (which are both synthesized in our lab from myristic acid or oleic acid) and their polymerization. In particular, she is interested in the synthesis of functionalized polymers by ring-opening metathesis, as well as in the preparation of novel carboxylic acid functional acrylic resins. Bio-based materials will be used in both synthesis of monomers. Also, she is working on GC-MS analysis and matainance in our group. In the part time, she likes to study about managment stratergy, marketing and economics in chemical industries.
Location: RH 619; ext: 4041.

Chunxiao Han

Chunxiao Han graduated from Tianjin University in China and joined the group in 2007 as a Ph.D student. His recent research majors in organic synthesis of novel compounds, which are based on the building block of di-acid with unique structures. It involves amidation, esterifcation and glycosiation in the process of synthesis. Those novel compounds may have outstanding surfactant properties and biological activities. He also did research in enzymatic catalysis of isosorbide and glycerol derivatives.
Location: RH 619; ext: 4041.

Xu Qin

Xu Qin joined the group as a doctoral student in 2007. He got his B. Sc in Materials Chemistry in 2007 from Beijing Institute of Technology, China. His current research focus on in-vitro protease catalyzed oligopeptide synthesis, which included kinetic time-course study of protease catalyzed water soluble peptide synthesis; semi-control of protease catalysis by optimizating parameters such as pH, buffer concentration and feeding ratio; synthesis of lys-co-leu and arg-co-leu amphiphilic co-oligomers to develop antimicrobial peptide; design of pH-responsive peptide hydrogel as smart materials.
Location: RH 715; ext: 3820.

Fei Liu

Fei Liu joined the group in 2008 as a Ph.D student. He is working on metal protein binding, the design and synthesis of novel metalloproteins, especially the metal binding to the designed CalB mutants. Fei got his masters in Polymer Chemistry and Physics from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. His project-involved copolymerization of CO2 or CS2 with epoxides under the catalysis of Double-Metal Cyanide Complex In his undergraduate studies he worked on preparation and Vapor Sensing Properties of Polymer Composites with Molecular Discrimination Ability.
Location: RH 731; ext: 4097.

Yifeng Peng

Yifeng Peng joined the group in 2008 as a doctoral student in materials chemistry. His work involves chemoenzymatic synthesis of sophorolipid derivatives for improved and novel properties.
Location: RH 819; ext: 3408.

Anne C. Khuong

Anne C. Khuong joined the group in 2010 as a doctoral student. She received an A.B. from Vassar College. Her current work includes using chemo-enzymatic strategies to synthesize oligopeptides and conjugate them to surfaces and particles or incorporate them as pendant groups of polymers.
Location: RH 723E; ext: 3960 .

Jianhui Zhu

Jianhui Zhu joined the group as a doctoral student in 2010. He received a bachelor’s degree in Polymer Science and Engineering at Zhejiang University in 2009. His current research focuses on synthesizing and characterizing polymers from renewable resources, such as ω-hydroxyfatty acid and monomers contain furan structure.
Location: RH 619; ext: 4041 .

YuRong Zhang

YuRong Zhang joined the group in 2010 as a visiting doctoral student from Sichuan University in China. His current research interests include enzymatic catalysis of novel compounds. These novel compounds may have outstanding curing properties and biological activities.
Location: RH 619; ext: 4041.

Amanda Koh

Amanda Fried joined the group as a doctoral student from the Chemical-Biological Engineering department in 2012. She received her S.B. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Chemical Engineering in 2011. She is currently working on using modified sophorolipids to create nano-emulsions and understanding their interactions as a surfactant.
Location: RH 713, ext: 3602.

Stephen Spinella

Stephen Spinella joined the group as a doctoral student in 2011. He received his M.S. in Synthetic organic/organometallic chemistry from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in Fall 2010. He is currently working on the enzymatic synthesis of polyesters.
Location: RH 619; ext: 4041.