Monthly Meeting of SB Club this June 26, 2023
- Post by: Ahmad Saleh
- June 14, 2023
- No Comment
We would like to inform you that the monthly online meeting of Synthetic Biology Club (SB club) will be held this Monday, June 26 at 12h00 (EST). Please, Click here to register after which you will receive the meeting link (zoom).
Title: “Combating PET plastic waste using baker’s yeast”
Presenter: Raphael Loll, Research associate at University of Toronto, Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, Canada.
Time: Monday, June 26, 2023 at 12h00 (EST).
Place: Online (via Zoom). The zoom link of the meeting is provided by email after your registration. Click here to register.
Abstract: Over the past 70 years since the introduction of plastic into everyday items, plastic waste has become an increasing problem. With over 400 million tonnes of plastics produced every year, solutions for plastic recycling and plastic waste reduction are sorely needed. Recently, multiple enzymes capable of degrading PET (PolyEthylene Teraphthalate) plastic have been identified and engineered. In particular, the enzymes PETase and MHETase from Ideonella sakaiensis, have been shown to allow depolymerization of PET into the two precursors used for its synthesis, ethylene glycol (EG) and terephthalic acid (TPA). Importantly, EG and TPA can be re-used for PET synthesis allowing complete and sustainable PET recycling. In this talk, I will discuss our recently published work using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a platform to develop a whole-cell catalyst expressing the MHETase enzyme, which converts MHET (monohydroxyethyl terephthalate) into TPA and EG, on the cell surface. I will present how we designed and assessed multiple construct architectures for efficient surface display. I will also present our data showing that the MHETase display constructs are active against a model substrate, as well as MHET, and display comparable activity to the purified MHETase enzyme. Further, I will discuss the advantages of our system regarding enzyme stability over time and across a range of pH and temperatures. Finally, I will also discuss our current efforts in establishing PETase surface display.