Katrin Kronenberger, University of Oxford, is a biologist studying underwater silks produced by tube-building amphipods. Her research combines marine ecology, functional morphology and biomaterial science to understand how these proteinaceous fibres are produced, spun and how they function in aquatic environments. Marine amphipod silk is a natural structural biopolymer combining aspects of barnacle cement adhesion with elements of spider silk spinning.
Katrin's project at UMF examines how these silks function across Baltic salinity gradients and what this reveal about environmental adaptation and the potential for biomimetic wet adhesives.