PET, an extremely common material most notably utilized for bottling, is significantly contributing to the amount of plastic waste amassing each year. Our team is striving to lessen the quantity of PET plastic pollution by obtaining these three goals: achieve surface display of PETase and MHETase, establish a time-efficient platform to evaluate the efficiency of PET-degrading enzymes, and improve the activity of PETase through directed evolution using error-prone PCR.
PET-X built a foundational base for preparing PET degrading enzymes for use in an industrial setting to
- create a closed loop on PET production
- eliminate excess waste of PET
- create a screening platform for the discovery and continuous improvement of PET-degrading enzymes
We hope that PET-X will help take a crucial step toward making complete recycling of PET in industrial settings a reality while also providing an avenue for efficiently testing variations and making improvements to degradation system in future works.
Our three target users are future iGEM teams focused on plastic degradation, companies in the biodegradable plastics sector, and plastic bottling companies. We believe that these three groups would have significant interest in further developing PET-X into the proposed whole-cell biocatalyst capable of biodegrading PET because all three groups would most likely have our same goal of lessening global plastic pollution.
Every project utilizing Biosafety Level 1 (BSL-1) organisms must undertake proper safety precautions for the protection of all people, animals, and environments involved; therefore, future use of PET-X’s findings must follow all proper governmental safety regulations. Our E. coli are largely unviable without the assistance of growth medium and would most likely lose their plasmid in a natural environment; thus, if they were released, there would be little to no predicted harm to other organisms, materials, and equipment, and they would not be able to spread autonomously. Any waste generated should be disposed following all proper safety regulations as well.
A significant challenge of our proposed implementation for our project would be encouraging other iGEM teams or companies to utilize PET-X to continue developing the whole-cell biocatalyst. Recognizing this, our team decided to dedicate a substantial amount of time and resources into communication. We hope that by spreading awareness and educating others about PET-X, our target users may discover our work and decide to continue our momentous task of solving the worldwide plastic pollution problem.
