BIOTIC · Biotechnical functionalization of (bio)polymeric textile surfaces

The European textile industry, which is in transformation from labour intensive products to knowledge intensive products, has a great demand for innovative high-tech materials with special properties and added functionalities, like smart and biomedical textiles. Today’s scientific challenge is to make the enormous potential of biotechnology for production and synthesis of textile materials with advanced functionalities an opportunity for the European industry. The general aim of the research is to functionalise textile materials using modern biotechnology. The research will result in new, specific knowledge and technologies to create biotechnologically modified textile materials with unique properties. The application of functional textile (bio)polymers is typically in the field of medical, safety, care and signalling/detection but also in less obvious application areas such as e.g. tissue engineering and separation technology. Application of biotechnology is not just limited to biological materials; enzymes are able to modify synthetic materials as well. The research will be based on a concerted multi-disciplinary approach, resulting in a drastic increase of knowledge, thereby creating the possibility to produce biotechnologically functionalised materials with unique surface properties and functionalities. The research will focus on enzymatic grafting of functional groups on textile fibres, and specific enzymatic surface modification to obtain functional nano-structured surfaces. Control of enzymatic action at correct time and length scales is a prerequisite to achieve the desired functionalities. Therefore sophisticated technologies and processes will be explored in order to design novel production processes for textiles that exhibit the desired functionalities. The research will build upon expertise available at the department of Textiles at Ghent University and at biotechnological research groups at Ghent University, VIB and other European universities.