Principal Investigator Anthony Sinskey
Co-investigator Gregory Stephanopoulos
Professor Anthony Sinskey of the Department of Biology, Professor Gregory Stephanopoulos of the Department of Chemical Engineering, and graduate student Linda Zhong of biology have joined forces to address the environmental and economic problems posed by polyethylene terephthalate (PET). One of the most synthesized plastics, PET exhibits an extremely low degradation rate and its production is highly dependent on petroleum feedstocks.
PET is essentially an organic polymer of terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol, both of which can be metabolized by bacteria as energy and nutrients. These capacities exist in nature, though not together. The goal is to engineer these metabolic pathways into E. coli to allow the bacterium to grow on PET. Using genetic engineering, we will introduce the PET-degrading enzymes into E. coli and ultimately transfer them into bioremediation organisms.
The long-term goal of the project is to prototype a bioprocess for closed-loop PET recycling, which will decrease the volume of discarded PET products as well as the consumption of petroleum and energy for PET synthesis.
The researchers’ primary motivation in pursuing this project echoes MITEI’s overarching goal for the seed fund program: to push the boundaries of research and innovation to solve global energy and climate challenges.