Team:UChicago
Computationally Optimizing PET Degradation
We believe that designing efficient biosynthetic/biodegrading/biocatalytic pathways in cell free media will pave the way to a more sustainable future. Our software tool, Optizyme, uses a novel algorithm to optimize these pathways. Our team is using Optizyme to inform the design of our own PET degrading pathway!
Optizyme's Impact
Our software and Biosynthesis
Our Design
Infusing our mission into our code
The Team
Driven and inquisitive--get to know us!
Getting to work: Creating Optizyme
The problem of microplastic pollution spreads to every corner of the globe. An estimated 63,320 microplastic particles can be found within several meters of the every square kilometer of ocean surface on earth.
With public health risks and environmental damage increasing at an alarming rate, we envisioned a biochemical approach to reducing the threat posed by one of the largest contributors to worlwide microplastic pollution: PET.
Our path through the design and research process was distinct from past years, with the team spread throughout the U.S. as a result of COVID-19. We adapted to 2020's curveballs and transitioned into a wet approach, as committed as ever to contribute to reducing the issue of microplastics in widespread water resources.
Optizyme is the product of our work--it is the result of a sustained effort to use novel computational methods to not only inform our biochemical approach, but to actively improve upon it. And we are excited by the vast potential we see for its implementation into a great number of projects even beyond our own.
Find Optizyme on GitHub:
