Difference between revisions of "Team:Pasteur Paris/Description"
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<p style="text-indent:3em;">Erythromycin is an <b>antibiotic</b> used by people who are found to be allergic to penicillin to treat bacteria infections by preventing them from growing and multiplying. This drug is <b>popular</b> and common man is aware of them because of it being <b>prescribed frequently</b> by doctors. <b>Demand is consequently very important</b>. But today the total synthesis of erythromycin is very complex : about <b>50 stages</b>, which are increasing the synthesis <b>duration and cost</b>.<sup><b>5</b></sup></p> | <p style="text-indent:3em;">Erythromycin is an <b>antibiotic</b> used by people who are found to be allergic to penicillin to treat bacteria infections by preventing them from growing and multiplying. This drug is <b>popular</b> and common man is aware of them because of it being <b>prescribed frequently</b> by doctors. <b>Demand is consequently very important</b>. But today the total synthesis of erythromycin is very complex : about <b>50 stages</b>, which are increasing the synthesis <b>duration and cost</b>.<sup><b>5</b></sup></p> | ||
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<center><p><b>Fig.4</b> - The very complex molecule of erythromycin A.<sup><b>6</b></sup></center></p> | <center><p><b>Fig.4</b> - The very complex molecule of erythromycin A.<sup><b>6</b></sup></center></p> | ||
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Revision as of 12:48, 12 July 2015
PlastiCure
The Problem:
Every year, more and more plastics are produced. In 2000, 190 million tons of plastic were produced in the world, whereas today, approximatively 300 million tons of plastic are produced (Fig.1). The most produced types of plastic are polyethylene (PE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polypropylene (PP).
Fig.1 - Evolution of the world plastic production, in million of tons, since 1950 to 2020.1
However, today, the treatment of plastic waste is not adapted to this exponential production… In 2012, 25.2 million tons of plastic waste were produced in Europe2, among which only 26 % were recycled, while 36 % were burned in order to produce energy and the remaining 38 % were dumped or buried (Fig.2). In the end, this plastic accumulate in nature and pollute our ecosystem, especially the oceans.
Fig.2 - Treatment for post-consumer plastics waste in 2012, in the European Union.3
The problem is accentuated by the fact that plastic waste are microparticles: in our oceans, more than 90% of the plastic particles are smaller than 5 mm, which makes it almost impossible to clean them. The worst danger comes from invisible plastic: Oxidation and especially UV radiation break the plastic in small fragments which can reach 20 micrometers in diameter. Today, the particles are becoming small enough to enter in our food chain.4
Our solution:
PlastiCure is a biological system based on E. coli designed to degrade plastics and use the degradation products to produce bio-active compounds. The challenge of the project is coupling these two biosynthetic pathways in one system. The idea here is first to create a new way to treat plastic waste but also to produce from plastic a novel profitable transformation product that will increase efforts in plastic recycling.
By engineering the metabolism of E. coli we want to create a system able to produce a curative product, the erythromycin, and in the same time help to address the issue of plastic pollution. Therefore, E. coli will be used as a heterologous host to integrate exogenous DNA sequences, well-organised in multiple operons (82 % of our designed operons will be composed of heterologous genes). By this NEW WAY we will allowed E. coli to express all biodegration / biosynthesis genes and so we will favorise the revalorisation of the plastic waste into drug.
Erythromycin is an antibiotic used by people who are found to be allergic to penicillin to treat bacteria infections by preventing them from growing and multiplying. This drug is popular and common man is aware of them because of it being prescribed frequently by doctors. Demand is consequently very important. But today the total synthesis of erythromycin is very complex : about 50 stages, which are increasing the synthesis duration and cost.5
Fig.4 - The very complex molecule of erythromycin A.6
Moreover, PlastiCure is a biological system well-designed, In fact, we can think of removing the erythromycin pathway to insert other pathways to produced a multitude of molecules. Therefore, PlastiCure has been thought to be derived so we can use the plastic degradation of our system to produce a huge diversity of products. This make PlastiCure one of the most innovative project.
References
1 - Plastics – the Facts 2014. An analysis of European plastics production, demand and waste data
2 - http://www.planetoscope.com/petrole/989-production-mondiale-de-plastique
3 - Plastics – the Facts 2014. An analysis of European plastics production, demand and waste data
4 - http://app.dumpark.com/seas-of-plastic-2/#oceans
