The research of my group focuses on understanding the integral steps in the molecular pathways used by plants to synthesize complex polysaccharides. A key area of interest is development of methods to express and analyze recombinant plant enzymes, which has allowed us to investigate plant biochemical pathways in vitro. We have now generated a large collection of recombinant enzymes that are able to catalyze highly specific, covalent modifications of polysaccharides, which we utilize as nature-inspired molecular tools for targeted functionalization and labeling of glycopolymers that greatly expand our toolkit for producing glycopolymer-based products with valuable properties. Lab site: https://ccrc.uga.edu/team/breeanna-urbanowicz/ Research Areas: Molecular Plant Sciences Structural Biology