Thomas Baumgarten
- Postdoctor
- KTH
PhD project: Enzyme discovery for wood biopolymer modification
Supervisor: Lauren S. McKee
Dissertation planned to: 2020-10

Research area:
- 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.
- Research theme: 2–biorefinery, 3–material forming