What inspired you to pursue this research topic, and how has your understanding of it evolved throughout your PhD journey?
Well, I can definitely say it’s not because I like spiders! But what they can do, efficiently producing high-performance fibers, is remarkable and deserves recognition. I was already working in silk research before my PhD at Karolinska Institute and Lund University, and my interest really started there. Exploring ways to design fibers inspired by spiders felt like a way to contribute to addressing sustainability challenges in both processing and new materials. I wanted to better understand the fundamentals of silk assembly which led to my PhD, and here we are now, getting closer, but still with a long way to go.
Can you describe a key finding or insight from your research that you’re especially proud of – and why it matters in your field?
One key insight I gained is that protein assembly should be assessed across multiple length scales. The time-resolved approach we used with the NUrF setup really highlighted this need. It allows us to capture more events and examine whether they are correlated, giving a clearer understanding of the complex systems we study.
How do you hope your research will be used or built upon after your defense – whether in academia, industry, or society at large?
When it comes to my thesis research, much of it is fundamental science, so we are still far from direct translation. However, understanding these basic concepts is essential for developing ways to apply them in real-world applications.
Thesis: A Multimodal Lens on Protein Assembly: From Silk to Seeds - Lund University Research Portal
The interview with Juanita Francis was originally published by the research school SwedNESS, of which Juanita was also a member:
Link to the interview on the SwedNESS website