9728366 Wang The proposed research program uses renewable natural polysaccharides as a platform, and uses thermophilic enzyme libraries as a novel synthetic tool to develop environmentally friendly chemistry for the synthesis of novel po!ysaccharide-based materials. The major thrusts are the development and application of thermophilic enzyme catalysis. Extremozyme libraries from microorganisms in extreme environments (e.g. high temperature, high pressure or high salt concentration) constitute a new type of biocatalysts, which exhibit novel chemo-, regio- and stereo- selectivities and can be used at extremes of temperature or pH or in organic solvents in industrial processing. The specific aims and expected results for this program are: 1. Obtain a complete data base on glycosidase-catalyzed glycosylation with the thermophilic glycosidase library and synthesize a host of monosaccharide modified polysaccharide. 2. Utilize the thermophilic cellulase library to synthesize structurally well defined cellulose derivatives which can be used to study the structure/property relation of polysaccharides. 3. Develop thermophilic lipase/esterase-catalyzed polymerization technology to graft polyesters onto polysaccharides, and synthesize a host of novel polysaccharide-polyester materials. This program will serve to demonstrate and promote the use of environmentally friendly biocatalysis to transform renewable natural resources into novel materials. ***
