American Scientist

One of the most common plastics in packaging and textiles is PET, or Poly(ethylene terephthalate). Like other plastics, PET doesn’t degrade easily so it accumulates in the environment, and can form microplastics that pose a serious threat to marine life and ecosystems, and potentially to human health. To address this issue, Nathan Crook, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at North Carolina State University, and his team have developed a biocatalyst based on the nonpathogenic bacterium Vibrio natriegens that is capable of degrading and assimilating waste PET in seawater environments. In this recorded talk, Crook describes how his team engineered this strain to depolymerize PET and use the products to provide energy to the engineered bacterium, allowing it to replicate as it further degrades PET.