2018

Visitors from Taiwan!

On the 5th of September 2018, five students from Taiwan visited RWTH's Istitute of Applied Microbiology, where they met with some of our project's members. The 5 visiting students, who had won a Competition from the Taiwanese Ministry of Education with a proposal on biodegradable plastic, spent a day at RWTH as part of a study trip through Germany. The aim of this trip was to learn more about the science and technology of biodegradable Plastics, and to ultimately use the newly gained knowledge to help reduce the plastic pollution in Taiwan. 

All the best of luck to these young innovators in their studies and future careers! 

Ren Wei Presents at 9th International Congress on Biocatalysis!

At the 9th International Congress on Biocatalysis, P4SB's Ren Wei gave a presentation on "Biocatalytic degradation of synthetic polymers with thermophilic bacterial polyester hydrolases". 

The Congress took place from 26th to 30th of August 2018 in Hamburg, Germany. Congratulations to all involved!

 

Want to know more about the 9th International Congress on Biocatalysis? Go visit their webpage! 

 

Great Article about Plastic Recycling in Britain!

The BBC has recently published a great article about recycling regulations and practices in Great Britain.

"All the plastic you can and cannot recycle", written by Wesley Stephenson, gives an interesting account of current recycling practices, their problems, and offers up an idea of what might change in the future.

 

Curious? Go read it on the BBC Webpage!

Wing-Jin Li Wins Award at EBC-VII + ISBE-2018 Joint Conference!

P4SB's very own Wing-Jin Li has received a „Best oral presentation award by a graduate Student” at the Joint conference EBC-VII + ISBE-2018 in Chania, Crete. Wing-Jin was awarded the second place for her presentation "engineering Pseudomonas putida for plastic monomer utilization".

Congratulations!

 

 

[Image: Wing-Jin Li giving her Award-winning presentation]

The Ocean Cleanup Is On Its Way!

The amazing non-profit organization "The Ocean Cleanup" has launched its first cleanup system, a passive cleaning system taking advantage of natural oceanic forces to facilitate plastic collection and removal. The very first such system, nicknamed 'Wilson', has been launched on Saturday, 08.09.2018 from San Francisco Bay.

Congratulations to all involved and all the best of luck!

 

Curious about the launch? Watch it here!

Want to know more about The Ocean Cleanup? Go visit their Website!

 

[Image Credit: The Ocean Cleanup, Erwin Zwart]

New Publication by Our Project Partners!

The jounal article "Engineering Pseudomonas putida KT2440 for efficient ethylene glycol utilization" was written by Mary Ann Franden, Lahiru N. Jayakody, Wing-Jin Li, Neil J. Wagner, Nicholas S. Cleveland, William E. Michener, Bernhard Hauer, Lars M. Blank, Nick Wierckx, Janosch Klebensberger, and Gregg T. Beckham. It was first published in Metabolic Engineering, Volume 48 in July 2018.

Congratulations to everyone involved!

Interested in learning more? Find this article on our Publications Page, or access it via its DOI!

 

Microbial enzymes for the recycling of recalcitrant petroleum-based plastics: how far are we? among 20 most downloaded articles in Microbial Biotechnology!

Microbial enzymes for the recycling of recalcitrant petroleum-based plastics: how far are we?, published in Microbial Biotechnology, was one of the journal’s top 20 most downloaded recent papers!

The article was published by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Zimmermann and Dr. Ren Wei in 2017.

 

 

As of year-end 2017 this article has been downloaded 3476 times.

Congratulations to all involved!

Curious? Find out more about this article on our publications page!

Plastics recycling with microbes and worms is further away than people think

In this interesting and well-researched article on plastic recycling, "Plastics recycling with microbes and worms is further away than people think - Headlines about plastic-eating organisms belie tough, competitive road to development", Carmen Drahl talks about the facing the challenges, drawbacks, and effort that it takes to come to innovative and workable solutions to plastic waste problems.

It was first published by Chemical & Engineering News on June 15, 2018, and apeared in Volume 96, Issue 25.

Curious? Go read the article here!

 

[Image: http://www.altus.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/628448/altus-afb-raises-awareness-for-recycling/]

New Publication by Our Project Partners!

The scientific Journal article "Plastic Biodegradation: Challenges and Opportunities" was written by Nick Wierckx, Tanja Narancic, Christian Eberlein, Ren Wei, Oliver Drzyzga, Audrey Magnin, Hendrik Ballerstedt, Shane T. Kenny, Eric Pollet, Luc Avérous, Kevin E. O’Connor, Wolfgang Zimmermann, Hermann J. Heipieper, Auxiliadora Prieto, José Jiménez, and Lars M. Blank. It was first published online on March 26th of 2018, and can be accessed via SpringerLink, Springer International Publishing's official Webpage.

Curious? Find out more on our Publications page!

 

[Image source: https://link.springer.com/bookseries/13884]

P4SB Success Story Reported and Tweeted

"Designer bugs for creating greener Plastics" - P4SB's success Story has been shared on the EU Commission's Webpage!

Abstract of the report: "Plastics are desirable because they are very durable and resistant to degradation. Plastic waste is undesirable because of these very properties. EU-funded researchers are designing bacteria to efficiently consume plastic waste and turn it into novel destructible plastic - good for the environment and health."

Interested? Read the full article here!

[Image: related Horizon 2020 tweet]