Prof. Ulrica Edlund about Carbotrace 540:
"We were studying the biochemical composition of Ulva lactuca (a.k.a. Ulva fenestrata), which is still not fully known. Our hypothesis, and we wanted to prove, was the presence of cellulose and we knew that optotracing was probably the best method for analysis to distinguish cellulose from other glucans, but not which optotracing molecule would work the best. So we simply took a few of the optotracers we had already used plus the newest available variant [Carbotrace 540 from Ebba Biotech] and that one proved to work best of all! We saw a clear redshift in the excitation spectra and a specific peak, confirming the presence of cellulose nanofibrils. So we have proven the presence of cellulose in Ulva and that the xylose detected in other analyses must stem from another saccharide co-existing with cellulose. Our studies will now continue to try to more fully understand the structure of Xyloglucan."
Ulrica Edlund is Professor in Polymer technology at KTH Royal Institue of Technology and Vice Director at the Center for the Advancement of Integrated Medical and Engineering Sciences (AIMES) at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.