Introductory seminar with PhD Student Filip Vinagre, Dept for Biological and Environmental Sciences
Focus for Filip’s PhD- project will be diatoms and how to extract valuable natural compounds such as oils and pigments from their silica shells in a more sustainable way, se more below.
His main supervisor is Angela Wulff (BioEnv) with Mats Andersson (BioEnv) and Ingrid Undeland (Chalmers) as co-supervisors. Examiner is Snuttan Sundell (BioEnv).
Short abstract
Diatoms produce hierarchically structured silica cell walls with precisely controlled micro- and nanoscale architectures. These biosilica frustules are emerging as functional materials in photonics, biomedicine, and micro and nanorobotic systems, where geometry, surface chemistry, and mechanical stability directly influence performance. At the same time, diatom biomass contains a chemically diverse organic matrix rich in lipids, pigments, proteins, and polysaccharides. Despite this dual material and biochemical value, current processing strategies largely focus on isolating the silica framework using aggressive chemical treatments that eliminate most intracellular components. This trade-off between maintaining biosilica integrity and recovering organic fractions constrains the full exploitation of diatom biomass. A sustainable alternative requires integrated downstream strategies capable of preserving frustule architecture while enabling controlled recovery of intracellular fractions. This research investigates mild, green solvent-based extraction concepts combined with sequential fractionation approaches to establish a cascade biorefinery framework for diatom biomass. Particular attention is given to maintaining structural integrity of biosilica for materials applications while selectively targeting organic fractions of interest. By bridging bioprocess engineering and functional materials design, this work aims to advance a structurally aware, multi-product processing platform aligned with circular bioeconomy principles in marine biotechnology.