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Issei Otsuka works at The Plant Macromolecular Research Center in a research group focusing on the self-assembly of glycopolymers. The results of his research group suggest great potentials of electrospun polysaccharidic membranes toward efficient chiral resolution of racemic compounds. The method used in the research is electrospinning, which is a highly versatile method to process solution or melts of polymers into continuous fibers with diameters ranging from tens nanometers to a few micrometers. The technique has been applied in many applications for biomaterials such as drug delivery, tissue engineering scaffolds, wound dressing, etc. 

Dr Otsuka was invited to the Coffee and Science event of the Department of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering by Assistant Professor Jukka Niskanen. These two scientists met at a conference in Krakow, Poland, about ten years ago. Their paths crossed again in Montreal, Canada, where Otsuka was working as a visiting scientist and visiting professor at the same time as Niskanen was working as a postdoctoral researcher. And a few years later, these colleagues run into each other accidentally at the coffee room at VTT, Espoo. 

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Maupertuis 2024 Researcher Short Mobility program is supported by French Institute of Finland, French Embassy of Finland, French Ministry of Higher Education and Research, and Finnish Society for Sciences and Letters.