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Chlorella Cavaliers
Summary
Scientists are trying to engineer algae that can break down plastic waste, including microplastics that are notoriously hard to remove from oceans and drinking water. This matters because microplastics have been found throughout the human body, and a tool that naturally breaks them down could help reduce our exposure. So far, this is early-stage lab work — researchers have only just begun modifying algae's DNA and testing whether it takes hold, so there's no working plastic-eating algae yet.
Utilizing plastic degradation algae represents a solution to our global pollution crisis. This goal would create a sustainable way to break down synthetic polymers into a non toxic component. Some research that needs to be done to solve this problem are; introducing DNA in algae cells, selecting algae clones, further selecting clones to see which clones survived and show positive results, analyzing the DNA and protein, and lastly seeing if our goal of plastic degradation algae show a positive result overall. Some results so far for Agrobatrium show eleven clones, and out of those eleven one of my clones have resulted in a positive DNA. Needing further testing to figure out whether metaspace is present and seeing the growth, protein, and DNA sequencing. The impact this research hopes to make is that these organisms can target microplastics that can be impossible to filter out of the ocean or drinking water.