The magic of starch

Forget Flubber. In the lab of Ramani Narayan, starch can do the most amazing things -- it can be a toy, a bag, a packing peanut or a way to deliver medicine.

Starting with biomass from soybeans and corn, the MSU professor of chemical engineering and materials science and his colleagues created films used to make plastic-type bags and foam sheets to protect cargo during shipping and for use as insulation. The environmentally friendly, biodegradable alternatives to current oil-based polyethylene packaging and plastic bags degrade, which means they don't take up landfill space.

Narayan's research also discovered cornstarch's entertainment value. Magic Nuudles are colorful, nontoxic, cornstarch-based building blocks that look and feel like Styrofoam. Available across the United States and worldwide, the Nuudles are completely child-safe and biodegradable. They also have water-based adhesive properties and have spawned a new line of arts and crafts materials.

Narayan's starch film and sheet research has been licensed by KTM Industries of Lansing, Mich., which is marketing the products under the trade name Green Cell.

Narayan is also exploring biomedical applications. He and his research team are working with EcoSynthetix, a Michigan company, to study the delivery of anticancer drugs using starch nanospheres only three to four atoms in diameter.

"We take regular starch, incorporate a variety of functional traits and convert it into micro- and nanosized spheres that are loaded with a drug for targeted, slow release over a defined time period," Narayan said.

Narayan said an engineered starch polymer is an ideal drug delivery system because the products released when the starch breaks down occur naturally in the body.

Narayan has formed a company, Biopolymer Innovations, to develop new delivery systems for ocular drugs.

"Now, when you put drops in your eye, you tear up and much of the medication is washed back out," he said. He envisions a tiny starch-based polymer patch that attaches to the eye, gradually delivering medicine as it breaks down, that is completely assimilated by the body once the medicine has been delivered.