Doctoral Student Receives Gordon Research Conference’s Outstanding Research Poster Award

Dharanidaran Jayachandran, a doctoral student in the School of Engineering Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering (CBE)

received the Outstanding Research Poster Award at the Gordon Research Conference (GRC), which convened in Andover, New Hampshire in July. 

“Receiving this award is a great honor,” he says. “The conference featured world-renowned scientists in the field of cell wall biology, including true pioneers whose work I’ve followed for years. It was truly gratifying to receive recognition of my work in front of them.” 

Carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) are active in the biosphere, where they contribute to the use and synthesis of numerous polysaccharides. With its  2023 meeting theme “Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes (CAZymes) for Environmental Sustainability and Human Health,” the prestigious international conference welcomed scientists and engineers whose work explores those issues.  

Jayachandran, who plans to defend his thesis next fall, was one of a small group of students from CBE associate professor Shishir Chundawat’s lab who attended the conference, where Chundawat was also an invited speaker at the conference. Jayachandran’s winning poster, “Visualization of cellulose in regenerating cell walls,” presented aspects of his doctoral research. 

“A major objective of my research was to develop protein probes termed carbohydrate-binding modules, for visualizing regenerating plant cell walls,” he explains. “These probes successfully enabled real-time visualization of growing cellulose, and the findings were presented at the conference. Notably, this work revealed key events at a cellular level during cell wall regeneration for the first time.” 

According to Jayachandran, his study involved collaborative researchers from Rutgers Departments of Plant Biology and Proteomics. “Part of this research has been published in the “Biotechnology and Bioengineering Journal,” accessible at  https://doi.org/10.1002/bit.28484. 

Presentations made by the Chundawat Lab group members can also be viewed online at (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/shishir-p-s-chundawat-6a8742a9_glycotime-cazy-enzymes-activity-7088868426667941888-CFXG).