The project of Dr Piotr Biniarz from the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Sciences at the University of Life Sciences in Wrocław, concerning the biotechnological decomposition of microplastics, received over PLN 1.1 million under the Sonatina 5 competition of the National Science Center.
The team of Dr Biniarz is planning to collect and examine samples from various environments in the previously unknown microorganisms that decompose plastics, such as nylon, polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene, polyurethane, polyethylene or polypropylene.
– To do this, we are planning to develop new methods of analysis that will enable us to quickly and cheaply search for sequences coding enzymes that break down plastics directly in the genomes of microorganisms – says Dr Biniarz.
As the microorganisms that naturally break down plastics are usually inefficient, the team is planning to clone the enzymes they produce into the fast-growing Yarrowia lipolytica yeast, optimize the culture conditions, and test efficiency-enhancing additives.
