PhD student Markus Hackl from the Chundawat group has published a research paper titled ‘Acoustic force spectroscopy reveals subtle differences in cellulose unbinding behavior of carbohydrate-binding modules‘ in PNAS journal this week. A press release in social media further describes this research paper and its overall significance. Briefly, Markus developed a technique that enables precise measurement of molecular forces between carbohydrate-binding proteins and polysaccharides to unravel the mechanism of multimodal protein adsorption to cellulose that facilitates biomass deconstruction. Application of a similar approach can ultimately aid not only in the discovery of more efficient industrial-grade enzymes for low-cost biofuels production from carbohydrate feedstocks, but also development of cell surface (or glycocalyx) targeting protein-based drugs for improved healthcare.