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Human history would be unthinkable without cellulose – the framework of plant cell walls. Yet we do not fully grasp how nature spins long sugar chains into the ordered architecture that gives cellulose its strength, nor can we replicate this structure when reworking what nature creates. With an ERC Consolidator Grant, Yu Ogawa will investigate how proteins in plants, algae and bacteria align sugar chains into ultra-thin, highly ordered fibers – and then rebuild key steps of this process in the lab. The platform will be miniature, but the long-term potential far-reaching: a blueprint for manufacturing cellulose from scratch and tuning its architecture for a bio-based, closed-loop economy.
Human history would be unthinkable without cellulose – the framework of plant cell walls. Think of wood sparking the first fires and holding up early shelters, ancient Egyptian papyrus rolls, and the cotton fabric we have worn for thousands of years. Even today, cellulose is everywhere: in packaging, construction materials, and additives in food, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals.
As so often in nature, the basic recipe looks disarmingly simple: cellulose is made of sugar units linked into very long, straight chains. We have known this since 1838, when cellulose was first isolated and given its name. Yet, we are still unable to reproduce nature’s perfectly ordered architecture. Behind this apparent simplicity lies something we do not fully grasp: the mechanism that aligns plain sugar chains into ultra-thin, highly ordered fibers. For now, we can only extract and rework what nature creates, turning cellulose into countless derivatives.
Mapping the Architecture of Cellulose Fibers in Nature
Equipped with an ERC Consolidator Grant, Dr. Yu Ogawa is determined to change this. “My ambition is to understand how proteins in living cell membranes spin fibers in their unique arrangement – and then to build a miniature version of this process in the lab, so we can form cellulose from scratch,” he explains.
An internationally recognized scientist, Ogawa brought his expertise in cellulose to the Department of Sustainable and Bio-Inspired Materials in 2024. With the ERC project ArCeS, he plans to analyze frozen samples of plants, algae, and bacteria at the nanoscale using advanced electron microscopes to capture three-dimensional snapshots. “We want to map the crucial moment when loose sugar chains start to bundle and lock into crystalline microfibrils within the cell walls,” he says. Microfibrils are ultra-thin, highly ordered fibers that give cellulose much of its strength. Next, the project will trace how these fibers emerge in simplified lab tests, where scientists carefully tweak environmental conditions to see which factors shape cellulose formation.
Whether in biology, soft-matter and polymer physics, materials science, or sustainable engineering – wherever nanoscale structure matters, ArCeS could sharpen the picture.
Recreating – and Surpassing – Nature’s Architecture to Make Cellulose from Scratch
But the project’s potential reaches further than explaining how plants make cellulose. Ogawa looks to nature for design principles that may one day help tackle technological challenges. ArCeS aims to recreate key elements of the natural cellulose-spinning “workshop”. “The idea is to arrange the proteins that produce cellulose in different patterns on specially engineered surfaces and watch how the threads they make change,” Ogawa explains. “Then we’ll use computer simulations to see how small tweaks in the conditions alter the structure and performance of the fibers.”
The platform will be in miniature, but the long-term vision points to more sustainable ways of working with cellulose. Current industrial manufacturing relies on harsh chemicals and heavy water consumption to extract cellulose and, above all, damages nature’s ordered molecular structure in the process. Instead, the ArCeS in-lab platform will operate with water-based, near-ambient conditions and biological catalysts, showing that cellulose can be spun under mild conditions and its architecture carefully tuned. The team plans to design and study cellulose structures and morphologies that do not occur in nature, probing how they might be used in future applications.
In the long run, proper scaling may transfer Ogawa’s fundamental insights to manufacturing: well-aligned microfibrils would make cellulose easier to repurpose, thus supporting a more circular, plant-based economy. Within the next five years, his team is set to fundamentally rethink a material that has accompanied human societies from time immemorial – and to offer fresh impulses to support a more sustainable future.
Dr. Yu Ogawa
Yu.Ogawa@mpikg.mpg.de
Dr. Yu Ogawa observing cellulose microfibrils extracted from different plants and algae under the el ...
Copyright: MPICI
Cellulose microfibrils extracted from green algae
Copyright: MPICI
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Dr. Yu Ogawa observing cellulose microfibrils extracted from different plants and algae under the el ...
Copyright: MPICI
Cellulose microfibrils extracted from green algae
Copyright: MPICI
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