Consulting with the Center
Purdue University and the Whistler Center for Carbohydrate Research encourage consulting by faculty members.
Sustaining Member companies may tap the individual or collective knowledge and experiences of Whistler Center faculty as a benefit of membership. When a Confidential Disclosure Agreement (CDA) is requested between a faculty member or a group of faculty members serving as university employee(s), the agreement must be approved by Purdue University. Sustaining Member companies may also engage faculty members as paid consultants under the conditions in paragraph 3.
Faculty members, acting as individual contractors, may be engaged as consultants by any company, member or non-member, with the exceptions listed in paragraph 4. Consulting arrangements, fees, and a CDA are established by direct contact between the company and the individual faculty member. The faculty member must get approval from Purdue University to engage in any such outside activity.
Center Contacts
General Research Areas
- Starch
- Carbohydrate chemistry
Specific Research Areas
- Starch granule structure, reactivity, and behavior
- Chemical and biological modifications of starch
- Structure-functional property relationships of polysaccharides
General Research Areas
- Process modeling
- Rheology
- Material structure and texture
- Extrusion
Specific Research Areas
- Application of rheology to food science and food engineering
- Mathematical modeling of food process operations
- On-line rheological techniques
- Rheology of biomaterials
- Dough rheology
- Rheology of dairy products
- Characterization of material structure and texture; relationship to rheological properties
- Effect of glass transition on product texture
- Extrusion; role of rheology in the extrusion process
General Research Areas
- Phytochemical and botanical chemistry with focus on food pigments and flavonoids
- Development of methodologies for determination of phytochemicals in food and biological matrices
- Investigation of food processing effects on phytochemical profiles, bioavailability, and ultimate bioactivity
- Development of strategies for incorporation and stabilization of phytochemicals in food systems
Director of Whistler Center for Carbohydrate Research
(765) 494-5668
General Research Areas
- Carbohydrates and health
- Starch
- Cereal chemistry
Specific Research Areas
- Manipulation of starch digestion rate for low glycemic response/slow digestion
- Dietary fiber, modifications in functionality and fermentability, microbiota changes
- Cereal starch and protein functionality
- Textural properties influenced by starch fine structure
- Interactions between starch and other food components
- Appropriate methods of improving cereal utilization in developing countries
- Cereal endosperm texture
- Electron and confocal microscopy of cereal components
General Research Areas
- Gut microbiome
- Genomics and metabolism
Specific Research Areas
- Dietary fiber impacts gut microbiome diversity
- Genomic mechanisms of polysaccharide fermentation
- Carbon, nitrogen, and energy cycling by gut microbiota and host interfaces
General Research Areas
- Food chemistry
- Water-solid interactions
- Food materials science
Specific Research Areas
- Structure-function relationships of food ingredients
- Deliquescence
- Glass transition
- Moisture sorption
- FT-IR spectroscopy method development
General Research Areas
- Emulsions and foams
- Biopolymer interactions
Specific Research Areas
- Stability and texture of food emulsions and foams
- Adsorption of proteins and protein-polysaccharide complexes at interfaces
- Functional properties of proteins and protein-polysaccharide complexes
- Physical and chemical modification of proteins for use as food stabilizers
- Rheology of polysaccharide solutions and gels
General Research Areas
- Polysaccharide analysis
- Plant cell wall compositions, structures, and functions
- Bacterial cell wall compositions, structures, and functions
Specific Research Areas
- Extractions and purification of acidic polysaccharides from cell walls of plants and bacteria
- Pectin analysis
- Capsule, gum, and lipopolysaccharides analysis
- Application of HPLC, GC-MS, and NMR to structural studies of carbohydrates, including polysaccharides
- Role of polysaccharides in bacteria-legume symbiosis
- Detection of bacteria in plant roots
General Research Areas
- Plant classical and molecular genetics
- Protein structure and function
- Gene expression
- Large-scale forward and reverse genetics screening
- Genome maintenance and organization
- Genomics of starch digestion, composition and architecture
Specific Research Areas
- Rational redesign of corn starch composition
- Computer modeling of starch synthases
- Mutational analysis of starch biosynthesis in corn and E. coli
- Genetic modification of corn starch properties
General Research Areas
- Biomaterials for food and health
- Chemistry and genetics of carbohydrate polymers
- Nanotechnology for foods and drugs
Specific Research Areas
- Construction and characterization of nano-biomaterials
- Stabilization, solubilization, and delivery of active ingredients
- Genetic, enzymatic, and chemical modifications of starch
- Functional food ingredients
- Carbohydrate structure and function analyses