“Our oceans are drowning in plastic!”
Just count how much plastic rubbish is on this beach……
From polluted beaches to dying coral reefs, the impact is devastating—and it’s worsening.
But there is
hope!
Scientists have discovered Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) — a biodegradable plastic produced by microorganisms.
Unlike conventional plastics, PHA can break down naturally in marine environments, leaving no harmful residue.
It’s a material that could change the future of our oceans.
“Charles and Carlos are not very happy with their new PHA takeaway packaging…… “
However, there’s a problem.
Despite its potential, PHA remains far more expensive than petroleum-based plastics.
This cost barrier prevents it from being widely adopted, keeping our oceans at risk.
Our team is here to change that.
The Halomonas strains serve as the final production chassis. Once transformed with phaCAB-containing plasmids, they are tested for growth performance and PHA accumulation under halophilic fermentation conditions.
comprehensive iHP journey, we conducted 54 diverse and impactful activities.
Our modeling work was structured to answer four fundamental questions:
- What is our chassis?
(Model 1: Phylogenetic and Trait Analysis)
- What native tools does it have?
(Model 2: Genome Mining and Validation)
- How can we design better tools than nature?
(Model 3: AI-Powered Protein Engineering)
- What is our project's impact on the world?
(Model 4: Life Cycle Assessment)
