Design Engineering PhD Scholarship 23

Polymer.ai – AI-driven material discovery using Biomateriomics and Polymer Informatics

Abstract
This project develops polymer.ai Studio, an AI-driven platform integrating polymer informatics, biomateriomics with genome-scale metabolic modeling to design sustainable bio-polymers. Using conditional generative ML models with ensemble methods (similarity-based search, scaffold recombination, and property-guided optimization), the system generates candidate polymers optimized for target material properties (e.g., CO₂ permeability, tensile strength) while ensuring biosynthetic feasibility in microbial hosts like E. coli. Flux balance analysis validates metabolic producibility, bridging the gap between computational polymer design and biological manufacturing. This work addresses critical limitations in existing tools (PolyBERT) that ignore biosynthetic constraints, enabling rapid discovery of experimentally tractable, sustainable materials for circular economy applications.

How to Apply 
Please contact Dr Elena Dieckmann if you are interested in applying for this project. 

For more information on submitting a PhD application, please consult our application pages here. When you submit your application, please cite this project title in the 'how you are planning to fund your PhD' section. 

The deadline for submitting your application is 09 January 2026.