Loddie Foose
Graduate Student, Ph.D. Program
University of California, Santa Barbara 2003
B.S. Chemical Engineering
Research Interest:
The kinetics and mechanism of proteolysis at the solid-liquid interface under
detergency-relevant conditions
Research Summary:
The purpose of this project is to study interfacial enzymatic cleavage of proteins with the goal
of obtaining a better understanding of the mechanism and kinetics of enzyme action in commercial
detergent formulations. Historically, enzyme performance has been empirically optimized, so
further improvements will require a more detailed study of the enzyme-surface interactions,
enzyme-surfactant interactions, as well as the effect of other detergent additives (builders,
polymers, peroxide, etc.). Model protein "stain" substrates were developed on silicon wafers in
order to utilize techniques such as ellipsometry, optical waveguide light spectroscopy (OWLS), and
atomic force microscopy (AFM). This will allow the determination of protein content and morphology
on the surface as a function of time, enzyme concentration, surfactant concentration, etc.