Bioinspired & Integrative Science

The Team

Balasubramanian Rukmanikrishnan

Postdoctoral Fellow

I have recently Joined as a Research fellow at The Fermart Lab. In my recent works, I have worked on developing and investigating the structure and functionality of new composite packaging materials. My focus is to develop highly stretchable biopolymers composite films with antioxidants and antimicrobials properties. This overlaps with my other area of work, which is studying and developing sustainable composites of carbon-based and inorganic nanomaterials. More specifically, I have developed sustainable composite films using cellulose pulp. I have demonstrated how the highly brittle structure of cellulose pulp film can be transformed into flexible, transparent and thermally stable cellulose pulp composite films. So far, I have published 36 papers and have 5 patents to my credit. All my research work delves into the study of structure-property relationship of the biopolymers, their manufacturing, product design and technology for various applications.

Jyothsna Vasudevan

SUTD-NUS PhD

Jyothsna joined The Fermart Lab in 2016 as NUS-SUTD PhD fellow. She is passionate about understanding the properties of different types of materials and how they can be applied to the domain of living or biological systems. She completed her Master’s degree from the Department of Biomedical Engineering at The National University of Singapore (NUS). Her thesis focused on understanding the physical and chemical properties of biodegradable polyesters and their applications as protein delivery systems.
Prior to her research stint at NUS, she completed her Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology from SRM University, Chennai. She worked on the synthesizing and characterizing of Chitosan/Diopside scaffolds and their applications as Bone Tissue Engineering substrates. At The Fermart Lab, she is working towards building in vitro lab on chip platforms to study cell migration and cancer metastasis cascade. Besides her research interests, she loves keeping abreast of the latest trends in innovations and technologies, reading, and learning new languages. She is also an aspiring photographer. Linkedin Profile

Ng Shiwei

SUTD-NUS PhD

Shiwei joined the Fermart Lab as PhD candidate in 2018. He graduated from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. His previous work in microfluidics motivated him to look towards natural phenomenon, and nature in general, for potential solutions to the problems we face. His current research interest is focused on the engineering of bio-inspired materials and biomaterials for various application.

Benjamin Ng

MsC

Benjamin graduated from Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in Engineering Product Development. He joined the Fermart Lab shortly after as a student researcher to further his studies under the Master of Engineering in Innovation by Design (MiBD) program in SUTD. One of his undergraduate projects sparked his interest in biomaterials and their viability as a sustainable alternative to conventional materials. His current research interest is in chitosan based organic-inorganic composites and their various applications.

Jian Li

Senior Research Assitant

Jian Li graduated from Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in Engineering Product Development and a Master of Science in Technology Entrepreneurship in 2020. He joined the Fermart Lab in 2020 as a Senior Research Assistant shortly after getting his Masters. His area of interest in research is robotics. Outside of research, he enjoys working on interactive installations and has been part of the Singapore Night Festival for its 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 editions.

Cherie Hu Zi Ying

Research Assistant

Cherie is an undergraduate student at Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), on track to graduate with a bachelor’s degree Engineering Product Development and a Master of Science in Technology Entrepreneurship in 2023. She joined the Fermart Lab as part of her master program, with an aim to 3D print everyday objects for use in a circular manufacturing model.

The Fermart Lab is a multidisciplinary environment of extremely talented and motivated researchers. They form an exceptionally creative and collaborative team, offering great flexibility and opportunities for innovation. Here, researchers from very different cultural and scientific backgrounds, join forces to develop the latest scientific advances and technological applications across disciplines.

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Research Projects

• Fungus-like Additive Materials

  Large-scale manufacture with biological materials

  Cellulose is the most abundant and broadly distributed organic compound and industrial by-product on Earth. Yet, despite decades of extensive research, the bottom-up use of cellulose to fabricate 3D objects is still plagued with problems that restrict its practical applications: derivatives with vast polluting effects, used in combination with plastics, lack of scalability and high production cost.

  We have demonstrated the use of cellulose to sustainably manufacture/fabricate large 3D objects. Our approach diverges from the common association of cellulose with green plants and is inspired by the wall of the fungus-like oomycetes, which is reproduced introducing small amounts of chitin between cellulose fibers. The resulting fungal-like adhesive material(s) (FLAM) are strong, lightweight and inexpensive, and can be molded or processed using woodworking techniques. This material is completely ecologically sustainable as no organic solvents or synthetic plastics were used to manufacture it. It is scalable and can be reproduced anywhere without specialised facilities. FLAM is also fully biodegradable in natural conditions and outside composting facilities. The cost of FLAM is in the range of commodity plastics and 10 times lower than the cost of common filaments for 3D printing, such as PLA (polylactic acid) and ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene), making it not only more sustainable but also a more cost-effective substitute.

  This first large-scale additive manufacturing process with the most ubiquitous biological polymers on earth will be the catalyst for the transition to environmentally benign and circular manufacturing models, where materials are produced, used, and degraded in closed regional systems. This reproduction and manufacturing with the material composition found in the oomycete wall, namely unmodified cellulose, small amounts of chitosan –the second most abundant organic molecule on earth — and low concentrated acetic acid, is probably one of the most successful technological achievements in the field of bioinspired materials.

• Shrilk family of materials

  Man-made Natural Materials

  Plastics production has increased from 0.5 to 380 million tons per year since 1950. The increasing use of plastics, which in most cases are prepared by polymerization of monomers derived from a nonrenewable source, creates major waste management and environmental problems. Most of the plastic produced is used to make disposable items or other short-lived products that are discarded within a year of manufacture. These objects account for approximately 30 percent of the waste we generate, which accumulates in landfills or contaminates large areas of marine habitats – from remote shorelines and heavily populated coastlines to areas of the deep sea that were previously thought to be virtually inaccessible. These factors highlight the unsustainability of the current use of plastics, which is driving a growing interest in biomaterials that are fully biodegradable and recyclable.

  At the Fermart lab we are developing the next generation of materials for sustainable development. Our first version of “Shrilk”, based on the chemistry and molecular design of the insect cuticle, is transparent, biodegradable, and has an ultimate strength in the same range as aluminum alloys, but at half their density. It is made of silk proteins and waste material from the fishing industry (i.e. chitin). Seafood processing factories generate over 250 billion tons of chitin biopolymer that is typically dumped back into the ocean, negatively affecting coastal ecosystems.

  Shrilk represents a groundbreaking approach to sustainable development. It is based on the association of natural components and their molecular design as a sole entity. We demonstrated how structural natural materials with engineering relevance, are only achievable by controlling both characteristics and their relation. This approach, linking together manufacture, biological design, and biomolecules, has started a complete new approach to sustainable and bioinspired materials.

  Shrilk is considered one of the most important advancements for sustainable development in the last decade. It has been reviewed by the most prominent media outlets around the world, and has been referred as “one of the materials that will change the future of manufacturing” (Scientific American), as a “Supermaterial” (National Geographic) and as “the material that will save the world” (BBC).

• Biomaterials for Medicine

  Biomaterials for tissue engineering and biomedicine

  Biomaterials are used in medical devices or in contact with biological systems. Biomaterials as a field has seen steady growth over its approximately half century of existence and is highly multidisciplinary, as it merges medicine, biology, chemistry, materials science and engineering. While biomaterials were traditionally designed to be inert in a biological environment, new biomaterials capable of triggering specific biological responses at the tissue/material interface have been reaching clinical application.

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