Stefan Kasapis

Biography

Research interests focus on the conformation-structure-function relationships of plant/marine/bacterial polysaccharides in model systems, and in the presence of proteins, lipids and other co-solutes (e.g., sugars) or bioactive compounds (e.g., antioxidants) in order to develop novel products for the food, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries. Low and high-solid biomaterials increasingly include a number of proteins and non-starchy polysaccharides to deliver a range of properties such as structure, storage stability, processability and delivery control in a wide range of products. Under various conditions of industrial processing, food ingestion and drug delivery, proteins and polysaccharides exhibit a wide range of conformational properties, which should be understood on fundamental grounds for successful development of added value formulations. Work utilises molecular understanding of biopolymer interactions and functionality in solutions, gels, composites with a crystalline phase, and rubbery/glassy systems. Modeling based on developing theoretical frameworks from the “sophisticated synthetic-polymer approach”, and in combination with rheological, calorimetric, optical and spectroscopic techniques, unveils the structure-function relationship. Recently, I have proposed a new concept, the network glass transition temperature (Tg), which emphasizes the macromolecular characteristics of a biopolymer network. This is distinct from the well known Tg obtained from DSC and NMR, techniques that offer micromolecular insights nito bioglasses

Research Interest

Providing an alternative to gelatin via polysaccharide utilization in confectioneries and ice cream, since the protein is increasingly falling “out of fashion” with consumers and producers