Dr. Ran Zhao
Main Focus
Microbial fabrication offers a sustainable route for producing cellulose-based materials under ambient conditions. I aim to expand the understanding of material-producing microbial behaviors and cellulose assembly dynamics.
I am particularly interested in:
- Understanding the cellulose growth and assembly process by microbes,
- Bio-informed production of cellulose-based materials,
- Integration of biofabrication with advanced functionalities.
Figure summary of my previous studies: a. Schematic illustration of the fabrication of mineralized composites by combining 3D printing of emulsions with biomineralization. The resulting printing structures are (i) rigidified through mineralization and (ii) dried in the air, resulting in porous structures. (iii) The porous scaffold is back infiltrated with a second polymer, which can result in (iv) a swelling-induced mechanical reinforcement. b. Comparison of changes in mechanical behaviors after swelling between traditional synthetic hydrogels (orange curve) and the designed structured hydrogels (black curve). c. Proposed mechanism of the osmosis-driven stiffening of structured hydrogels. (figures adapted with permissions from 1. Zhao, Ran, et al. "Additive manufacturing of porous biominerals." Advanced Functional Materials 33.37 (2023): 2300950. 2. Zhao, Ran, et al. "Osmosis-driven stiffening of structured hydrogels." Applied Materials Today 37 (2024): 102155.)
Curriculum Vitae
Dr. Ran Zhao is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Sustainable and Bio-inspired Materials, headed by Prof. Silvia Vignolini, at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces.
Ran obtained her bachelor degree from Beijing University of Chemical Technology in 2016 and her master degree from University of Science and Technology of China in 2019. During her master study, under the supervision of Prof. Shuhong Yu, she was working on biomimetic structural composites and nanomaterials self-assembly. She then moved to Switzerland and obtained her Ph.D. degree from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in 2024, under the supervision of Prof. Esther Amstad. During her Ph.D. her research focuses on understanding biomineralization processes in biogenic systems and fabrication of mechanically adaptive composites by combining 3D printing, emulsion templating and biomineralization.
Ran joined the Department of Sustainable and Bio-inspired Materials directed by Prof. Silvia Vignolini at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interface in October 2024. Her current research focuses on understanding the microbial fabrication of cellulose and adaptation of biofabrication methods for advanced functional cellulose-based materials.
Publications
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=A2A2udcAAAAJ&hl=en