The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) will support the chemist Dr. Julieta Paez and a PhD student to develop green crosslinking reactions to form polymeric networks.
Crosslinked polymeric materials represent an enormous global market encompassing coatings, adhesives and hydrogel products, among many others. There is an increasing need for efficient ways to prepare such materials under environmentally friendly conditions. Inspired by chemical reactions occurring in proteins, Dr Julieta Paez will develop water-based crosslinking reactions with low environmental impact and cost-effectiveness. This concept will be applied to biomaterials synthesis.
Dr Paez said: “This project is not only exciting from the fundamental point of view, but also represents an attractive opportunity for applied science that could positively impact in the future development of coatings, adhesives and hydrogels in industry”.
Dr Paez is Project Leader of the Functional Hydrogels group within the Department Dynamic Biomaterials at INM.
Julieta Paez obtained her degree in chemistry (2006) and her PhD (2012) in the fields of polymer and materials chemistry at the National University of Córdoba (UNC, Argentina). Motivated to combine basic research with application-oriented development, she joined INM in 2016. Paez applies reactive chemistries occurring under physiological conditions to develop biomaterials for medical applications. She was awarded the second prize in the Evonik Call for Research Proposals ECRP in 2017. Since 2019 she is Head of the Functional Hydrogels group within the Department Dynamic Biomaterials.