Ben Kew publishes his new work on plant protein-based microgels in Nature Communications

Ben Kew (PhD Sudent, ERC LubSat Project) publishes his latest work titled  "Transforming sustainable plant proteins into high performance lubricating microgels" in Nature Communications. In this work combining experimental and theoretical work, Ben  neatly demonstrates for the first time that by transforming plant proteins into physically cross-linked microgels, it is possible to improve their lubricity remarkably, dependent on their volume fractions. This highly interdisciplinary collaborative work with Dr. Mel Holmes, Dr. Rammile Ettelaie, Dr. Evangelos Liamas from School of Food Science and Nutrition, Dr. Simon Connell from School of Physics and Prof. Daniele Dini from mechnaical Engineering in Imperial College, London, shows that these fabricated microgels allow an order magnitude reduction of boundary frictional forces as compared to the plant proteins. Using a complementary suite of techniques such as rheology, tribology, quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D), dynamic light scattering (DLS), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and mathematical modelling, we show that such microgelation of plant proteins renders lubricity similar to that of an oil/water (O/W) emulsion without using any additional lipidic substance or other additives. To aid a more accurate in vivo prediction of oral surface induced frictional behaviour, a biomimetic 3D tongue-like surface with similar deformability, topography and surface wettability to that of real human tongue was utilised for tribological measurements. We believe these #plant-based microgels (of course, if also proven to be sensorially appealing) may provide an outstanding platform of plant-based food ingredients to enhance palatability and functionality, and thus, improve the design of the next generation #plant protein-based, healthy, tasty and sustainable diets in order to accelerate the transition towards plant-based foods. Check this open access paper here: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40414-7