Cellulose & Biomass Degradation
Brazil is a world leader in sugarcane-based bioenergy. Our group contributes computationally to the understanding of enzymatic biomass degradation — a key step in second-generation biofuel production.
Research Focus
- Molecular simulations of cellulases and hemicellulases acting on cellulose
- Structural characterization of cellulose polymorphs
- Mechanism of cellulose chain decrystallization and processive degradation
- Interaction of accessory proteins (LPMOs, CBMs) with cellulose surfaces
Tool
We developed Cellulose-Builder — a toolkit for building crystalline structures of cellulose for MD simulations, published in the Journal of Computational Chemistry.
Prof. Dr. Munir Salomão Skaf
Full Professor & Principal Investigator
Full Professor at IQ Unicamp working on computational biophysical chemistry, molecular dynamics simulations, and theoretical chemistry.