Difference between revisions of "Team:UMaryland/Description"

Its everywhere, and often in places should not be. The issue of plastic pollution needs little introduction when most people have witnessed it firsthand. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) it the most common plastic, and much research has been conducted on its elimination.

When we decided to pursue a PET plastic degradation project, we wanted approach the issue deliberately. PET degradation has been the target of a great number of iGEM teams (we count 24!), and all have made their own unique contributions. We have composed a condensed review of every iGEM team's PET project since 2012. After reading through all of these projects, we noticed key issues that blocked some of the most promising projects from success.

PETNET is an informed approach to address the challenge of PET degradation. This problem has eluded many attempts to fix it, but PETNET is deliberately made to address the shortcomings of these attempts. It addresses challenges in biofilm formation with a new biocatalytic approach based on cellulose binding combined with a custom bioreactor.

Difficulties in measuring PET degradation are also addressed with a highly sensitive biological device that may open many doors for further engineering of PETase.