Andrew Cal

Biography

I have been working on PHAs for 7 years in all aspects from microbial production to melt processing, splitting my time between Mango Materials and the USDA Agricultural Research Service. Initially I worked to select rapidly growing, PHA producing methanotrophs and to develop rapid quantitation assays for PHAs. For the last several years I have worked to on PHA quality control and developing PHAs for injection molding and melt spinning applications. I did a Post-Doctoral fellowship in drought physiology at the International Rice Research Institute. My graduate research was split between studying heterochromatin formation in centromeric genes and the association of genetics of transcriptome traits at the University of Chicago.

Interests in Biomaterials

PHAs, nucleation for PHAs, bio-based/bio-degradable plasticizers. My main application interests are injection molding, 3D printing, and melt spinning. I am especially intested in how purification methods affect material processing and performance.