Who We Are
Whistler Center for Carbohydrate Research is a university-industry research center that conducts fundamental and applied research on the structure-function and health-related impacts of food carbohydrates (starches, hydrocolloids, dietary fibers, and low-molecular-weight carbohydrates). It is centered at Purdue University, a top global educational institution located in Indiana, USA.
The Center comprises world-renowned faculty (16) and their research groups with expertise ranging from complex carbohydrate analysis, synthetic biology, gut microbiology, and nutrition to processing, rheology, and health outcomes. Along with supporting staff, we provide a valuable resource for carbohydrate-producing and -utilizing industries, consumers, and policymakers by conducting cutting-edge research, sharing knowledge on the science and impact of food carbohydrates, and providing analytical services to solve technical problems.
Our new research focus areas are:
- Components for healthy processed foods (designed carbohydrate ingredients, sugar reduction/replacement, novel health-related ingredients)
- Innovations in processed food quality (texture, quality, novel monitoring techniques)
- Sustainability and clean-label (by-product streams, biobased plastics, plant-based forward foods, edible coatings, and packaging)
- Healthy outcomes (microbiome, gut health, brain function, weight control, metabolic health, sex differences)
Companies who are or have been members in the last 15 years:
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The Center's mission is to enhance the efficiency and value of carbohydrate use in consumer goods by generating and sharing knowledge of carbohydrates' chemical, physical, and biological properties.
To be the premier food carbohydrate research center via:
- Being the leader in research related to food carbohydrates
- Being the leader in graduate education related to food carbohydrates
- Exhibiting the highest level of creativity and professionalism
- Maintaining successful, productive partnerships with our member companies
The Center serves carbohydrate-producing, carbohydrate-utilizing, and related industries through:
- Leveraging knowledge generation from governmental and institutionally funded research on carbohydrates to develop insightful research with value to industries.
- Educational opportunities for company scientists, both new and experienced, to understand how properties of carbohydrates and related biopolymers translate to their functional behaviors, including rheology, stability, and nutritional impacts.
- Creating a connection between the key leaders in industry with world-recognized academic researchers to generate solutions to technical problems rapidly.
- Analytical services that add to the portfolio of industrial capacity, resolving technical questions and contributing to the resolution of larger research questions.
- Paradigm-shifting views of how dietary fibers target changes in the gut microbiome
- Methods to reduce starch digestion rate for the ileal activation of the gut-brain axis
- New xylitol synthesis process scaled to an industrial level
- Resolution of atomic structures of polysaccharide chains, e.g., gellan gum
- New approach to interpret Fourier-Transform-Infrared Spectroscopy spectra of food materials
- Structural basis for slowly digestible starch to increase the amount in processed foods
- Effects of acetylation, oxidation, and annealing on the structure and function of bean starch
- Structural basis for the impact of monosaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polyols on sugar swelling and resulting paste viscoelasticity
- Deliquescence phenomena in carbohydrate-based powders
- Systematic studies on the alternative sugar/oligosaccharide effect on starch gelatinization
- Fundamental studies of fibers and gums on expansion in extruded products
- Mathematical models to describe the coalescence of dispersions and instability in foams
- Dendritic starch-derived structures for controlled delivery of hydrophobic bioactive molecules
- Polysaccharide associations impact the size development and stability of dispersed protein aggregates
- Reduction in intestinal inflammation by anthocyanins within dietary fiber mixtures
- Rheological methodology related to extruded meat analogues and doughs