Biocatalysis by plastic-degrading enzymes for bioremediation and recycling

微塑料污染是一个紧迫的环境问题。微塑料的生物催化降解将是一种“绿色”修复技术，但破坏PET等非活性塑料的酶很少--而且目前效率低下。我们使用创新的微流控技术对元基因组文库进行超高通量筛选，有助于确定能够分解微塑料的新的酶家族。我们还发明了第一个直接测定颗粒分解的方法，使塑料降解酶的定向进化成为可能：为微塑料分解量身定做的独特催化剂成为可能。现在，我们想要探索我们的工作流程及其结果在现实世界中的应用。该项目旨在分析市场和知识产权环境，以实现(I)迄今产生的聚合物降解酶的商业化；(Ii)微流控装置使用基于聚合物颗粒分散的强制催化剂选择。与工业(回收)和公共部门(生物修复)的利益相关者的互动将帮助我们确定目标市场及其不同的需求。建议开展有限的实验工作，以扩展我们的结果以创建一组具有工业相关性的展示结果，并将我们的超高通量测试的范围扩大到环境中其他塑料材料的颗粒降解，以展示多功能性。在项目结束时，我们将能够对不同的商业模式进行排名和评估，范围从剥离公司(包括商业计划草案)到特许经营或直接产业合作和咨询。

Microplastic contamination presents an urgent environmental problem. Biocatalytic degradation of microplastics would be a 'green'remediation technology, but enzymes that destroy the unreactive plastics such as PET are rare - and currently inefficient. Ourultrahigh-throughput screening of metagenomic libraries using innovative microfluidic technologies has helped to identify a newfamily of enzymes that is able to break down microplastics. We also have invented the first direct assay for particle breakdown thatallows directed evolution of plastic degrading enzymes: uniquely tailor-making catalysts for microplastics breakdown becomepossible. We now want to explore real world application for our workflow and its outcomes. This project is designed to analysemarkets and IP landscape for commercializing (i) polymer degrading enzymes generated thus far; (ii) the microfluidic devices used forcatalyst selection based on polymer particle-scatter. Interactions with stakeholders in industry (recycling) and also in the public sector(bioremediation) will help us to define the target markets and their different demands. Limited experimental work is proposed toextend our results to create an industrially relevant set of showcase results and for expanding the scope of our ultrahigh-throughputassay to particle degradation of other plastic materials in the environment to demonstrate versatility. At the end of the project we willbe in a position to rank and evaluate different business models ranging from a spin-out company (including a draft business plan) tolicensing or direct industrial collaboration and consulting.