Dr. Edgar's lab designs and creates derivatives of natural polysaccharides to address demanding performance requirements. They explore the structure-property-performance relationships of these materials, for diverse and demanding applications including drug-delivery systems, tissue engineering, biodegradable plastics, polymer compatibilization, hydrogels, and block copolymers. He is interested in novel methods to control and utilize the nanostructure of polysaccharides and derivatives, in particular the regioselective substitution reactions of complex polysaccharides, as well as the preparation of polysaccharides with controlled sequences.

His research more broadly addresses more effective ways of utilizing the vast abundance and diversity of natural polysaccharides to address societal needs. These sustainable, generally benign materials have an enormous variety of natural functions, ranging from structural, to rheology modification, to energy storage, to information storage and communication (glycosaminoglycans for example have the highest density of information storage of any natural polymer family, vastly greater than that of proteins and polynucleic acids like DNA and RNA). They have enormous potential for meeting challenging application demands while reducing the need for fossil fuel-based materials.

Edgar is active in the Macromolecules and Interfaces Institute (MII) and in the Institute for Critical Technologies and Applied Science (ICTAS). He is a member of the NSF sponsored Materials Innovation Platform focusing on glycoscience (GlycoMIP), and he is co-Director of the Infectious Disease Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Program (ID IGEP). He leads a track within the ICTAS Center for Engineered Health.

He is an editor-in-chief of the journal Carbohydrate Polymers, and a member of the editorial boards of the journals Biomacromolecules and Cellulose. He is an active member of the American Chemical Society and of its Division of Cellulose and Renewable Materials.