UCLA, UCSB Share $23.7 Million Grant to Study Biologically Based Polymers
James Badham and Wayne Lewis, UCLA Newsroom
Artist's concept illustration depicts the transformation resulting from using bio-based micro-organisms as the building blocks for better polymers. Photo Credit: Lillian McKinney.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has named UC Santa Barbara and UCLA joint partners in the BioPolymers, Automated Cellular Infrastructure, Flow, and Integrated Chemistry: Materials Innovation Platform (BioPACIFIC MIP). The five-year, $23.7 million collaboration is part of the NSF Materials Innovation Platforms (MIP) Program and has a scientific methodology reflecting the broad goals of the Materials Genome Initiative, which aims to develop new materials “twice as fast at a fraction of the cost.”