STRP

Our work will focus on two main objectives. First, we will optimize growth conditions and INP extraction protocols from fungal cultures to enable direct, high-yield protein purification. Second, we will establish heterologous expression of fungal INPs in microbial hosts such as yeast, with the goal of enhancing INP production yield and scalability. The proposed work will generate reproducible methods for producing fungal INPs and will include biochemical and functional characterization of the proteins to support application development. This effort will lay the groundwork for the use of membrane-free, well-defined INPs in sectors where bacterial INPs are not viable, including food sciences, cryopreservation, and cloud seeding.