News

Royal Society Summer Exhibition 2019

27 June 2019

Come visit us at our 'Timber Towers of Tomorrow' exhibit at The Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2019, London from the 1st to 7th July 2019 (10am to 6pm)

New insight into the structure of building blocks of plant biomass.

6 November 2018

In a paper recently published in Plant Physiology we investigate the structure and function of one of an important component of plant biomass – galactoglucomannan (GGM). The GGM is a polysaccharide, a polymer made from multiple sugar molecules joined together. It is one of the principal components of softwood, wood from...

FLOWER approved by the Interreg VA France (Channel) England Programme

15 June 2018

FLOWER aims to develop innovative flax fibre reinforcements for sustainable composites applications in the marine, automotive and point-of-sale advertising sectors

Professor Paul Dupree named a 2017 Highly Cited Researcher

7 December 2017

We are thrilled by the news that Professor Paul Dupree, our project Co-I has been named a 2017 Highly Cited Researcher,with the Dupree group’s research among the top 1% most cited works in the field of plant and animal biology. Professor Dupree commented that: “ I’m very proud to be named a 2017 Highly Cited Researcher...

A strategy to improve the processing of softwood to sustainable biomaterials and biofuels

21 September 2017

Our recently published paper in Biotechnology for Biofuels

Green method developed for making technical fibres

7 September 2017

The team at the Centre for Natural Material Innovation has designed a super stretchy, strong and sustainable material that mimics the qualities of spider silk and viscose rayon, and is ‘spun’ from a material that is 98% water.

New journal article published by Professor Dupree

28 March 2017

A new journal article "Effects of Xylan Side-Chain Substitutions on Xylan-Cellulose Interactions and Implications for Thermal Pretreatment of Cellulosic Biomass." has been published in Biomacromolecules by Professor Dupree.

Cambridge Science Festival 2017 Natural Material Innovation

28 March 2017

Natural Material Innovation Group participated the Cambridge Science Festival 2017 on 18 March. We held our demonstration stalls in the department of Chemistry. We demonstrated our research theme "Cells to skyscrapers: the science and engineering of 21st Century timber" : understanding how plants support themselves...

New publication in the Nature Communication: Folding of xylan onto cellulose fibrils in plant cell walls revealed by solid-state NMR

23 December 2016

The new article, Folding of xylan onto cellulose fibrils in plant cell walls revealed by solid-state NMR , was published in the journal Nature Communications. The study was led by Professor Paul Dupree team with his father, Professor Ray Dupree team at the Universities of Warwick. More details.

"Top of the tree: the case for wooden skyscrapers is not barking" in the Economist.

22 September 2016

In the article entitled "Top of the tree: the case for wooden skyscrapers is not barking" Dr Michael Ramage discusses his research with the Centre for Natural Material Innovation which is investigating the use of wooden materials for tall buildings, including a conceptual study for an 80-storey wooden skyscraper (designed...