Bioengineering Next Generation Biopolymers

全球石油衍生塑料产量超过3.1亿公吨。大量(22%至43%)这些不可生物降解的塑料材料被丢弃在城市垃圾填埋场，每年有数百万吨塑料材料累积在海洋中，对海洋生态系统构成重大威胁。加拿大和国际上对可再生和可生物降解聚合物产品的市场吸引力越来越大，以减少我们对不可生物降解的石油聚合物的依赖。基于生物的、可生物降解的塑料为许多商业应用提供了巨大的潜力来取代不可降解的聚合物。我的研究计划的总体目标是创造和表征由细菌合成的新型中链长度聚-3-羟基烷酸酯(MCL-PHA)聚合物，这些聚合物是为特定的新应用量身定做的。这些聚合物的亚单位组成决定了它们的物理和热性能，这反过来又决定了特定的用途。微生物合成的PHA聚合物具有生物降解性和生物相容性，在广泛的工业应用中具有巨大的潜力作为聚酯聚合物的替代来源，例如生物复合材料中的生物树脂，作为可生物降解的包装膜，作为组织工程的支架的可生物降解塑料组件的三维打印，和/或作为药物缓释胶囊。这项拟议的研究将结合使用基因工程和生物过程工程方法，从低成本、可再生的来源诱导微生物合成具有新亚基组成的PHA聚合物。我们将对这些聚合物的物理和热性能进行表征，对聚合物进行改性，以创建适合高价值应用的新型物理和/或热性能。这项拟议的研究将支持四名博士生和八名本科生，他们将获得分子生物学、生物过程工程和材料科学方面的高级技能。这项研究将开辟新的研究领域，并推动创新，重点是开发新的产品和应用(即可再生食品包装、组织工程支架、可生物降解的伤口敷料、生物兼容植入物等)。欧洲联盟和美利坚合众国都制定了生物经济战略，明确侧重于环境可持续性的创新。为了在全球生物经济中保持竞争力，加拿大必须保持在创新方面的领先地位，利用生物技术和生物工艺工程开发用于工业应用的新型聚合物。

Global production of petroleum-derived plastics is in excess of 310 million metric tonnes. Significant amounts (22% to 43%) of these non-biodegradable plastic materials are disposed of in municipal land-fill sites and million tonnes per year of plastic materials are accumulating in the oceans and pose a significant threat to ocean ecosystems. There is a growing market pull for renewable and biodegradable polymeric products, both in Canada and internationally, to reduce our dependence on non-biodegradable, petroleum-based polymers. Bio-based, biodegradable plastics offer great potential to displace non-degradable polymers for many commercial applications. The overall objective of my research program is to create and characterize novel medium chain-length poly-3-hydroxyalkanoate (mcl-PHA) polymers synthesized by bacteria that are tailored to specific novel applications. The sub-unit composition of these polymers determines their physical and thermal properties, which in-turn determines the specific uses. Microbially synthesized PHA polymers are both biodegradable and biocompatible, and have great potential as alternative source of polyester polymers for a wide variety of industrial applications, such as bioresins in biocomposite materials, as biodegradable packaging films, 3-D printing of biodegradable plastic components as scaffolds for tissue engineering, and/or as capsules for slow release of pharmaceuticals. The proposed research will combine the use of genetic engineering and bioprocess engineering approaches to induce the microbial synthesis of PHA polymers with novel subunit composition from low cost, renewable sources. We will characterize the physical and thermal properties of these polymers, modifying the polymers to create novel physical and/or thermal properties suitable for high-value applications. The proposed research will support four PhD students and eight undergraduate students who will acquire advanced skills in molecular biology, bioprocess engineering, and material sciences. This research will open new fields of study and drive innovation that will focus on the development of new products and applications (i.e. renewable food packaging, tissue engineering scaffolds, biodegradable wound dressings, biocompatible implants, etc.). Both the European Union and the United States of America have developed bio-economy strategies with a clear focus on innovation for environmental sustainability. To remain competitive in the global bioeconomy, Canada must remain at the leading edge of innovation, using biotechnology and bioprocess engineering to develop novel polymers for industrial applications.