Thomas Baumgarten

Suberin is an abundant component of wood that contains a variety of long-chain fatty acids. Due to their aliphatic nature and their functional groups (α-COOH and ω-OH) these fatty acids represent great building blocks for the synthesis of new polyesters.

Enzymes can be used to assist in the fractionation of woody biomass or to modify wood-derived building blocks for the synthesis of biomaterials. We are trying to produce and characterize new enzymes and explore their potential use in the production of wood-based materials.