Project Number: 5325-21410-020-05
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Sep 17, 2010
End Date: Sep 30, 2013

Objective:
To advance the fundamental knowledge regarding structure/property relationships in natural rubber, especially the role of naturally-occurring, non-rubber constituents in creating and controlling the nanostructured features that are believed to be responsible for the unique properties of natural rubber derived from Hevea brasiliensis.

Approach:
1) Deconstruct natural rubber latex through selective separation of naturally-occurring proteins and lipids by: a) identifying highly abundant natural rubber proteins (proteomics) b) extract and concentrate proteins from natural latex, including Hevea c) produce recombinant rubber particle proteins 2) Systematically reconstruct the latex composition from synthetic and Hevea, guayule, and Russian dandelion natural latex by protein add-back compositions. 3) Fully characterize the nanostructure and properties of resulting materials.