Carta, Giorgio
Primary Appointment
Professor, Chemical Engineering
Education
- PhD, Chemical Engineering, University of Delaware
Contact Information
PO Box 400741
Chemical Engineering Bldg, 118
Telephone: 434-924-6281
Email: gc@virginia.edu
Website: http://www.che.virginia.edu/people/faculty/carta.php
Research Disciplines
Biotechnology
Research Interests
Separations Technology and Biocatalysis
Research Description
The emphasis of our work is on the downstream processing of biotechnology products. Our efforts are devoted to:
The development of physical and mathematical models to describe and optimize chromatographic processes for the recovery, separation, and purification of biological compounds and of adsorption processes for the efficient removal and recovery of aqueous contaminants.
The development of novel advanced materials for bioseparations including large-pore particles, gel-composite media, and polymer-grafted ion exchangers for high performance and high throughput protein separations. We are especially interested in polymer hydrogels as separation media since such gels can be synthesized with a range of properties desirable for protein chromatography.
Studies on protein transport in ion exchangers using a variety of macroscopic and microscopic techniques with the goal of gaining a fundamental understanding of equilibrium and transport processes. We are studying the fundamental relationships between polymer properties and partitioning and diffusion phenomena of proteins in order to develop criteria for optimum design of the separation medium.
Preparative chromatofocusing for efficient pH-gradient based protein separations using stationary phases containing weak acid or weak base groups and non-adsorbed buffers. Our work is focused on developing optimum buffer compositions and modeling pH transitions that permit efficient separations of protein variants.