Human history would be unthinkable without cellulose – the framework of plant cell walls. Yet we do not fully grasp how nature spins long sugar chains into the ordered architecture that gives cellulose its strength, nor can we replicate this structure when reworking what nature creates. With an ERC Consolidator Grant, Yu Ogawa will investigate how proteins in plants, algae and bacteria align sugar chains into ultra-thin, highly ordered fibers – and then rebuild key steps of this process in the lab. The platform will be miniature, but the long-term potential far-reaching: a blueprint for manufacturing cellulose from scratch and tuning its architecture for a bio-based, closed-loop economy.