Can marine bacteria be superheroes in the fight against plastic pollution? - Ms Anna Faber

What if we could use marine bacteria as tiny superheroes in the fight against plastic pollution? Working with UWA colleagues, Anna teaches the fastest-growing bacterium in the world to eat certain types of plastic in seawater conditions. The marine bacteria then turn some of the plastic degradation products into bacterial fat, which can be harvested as a biodegradable plastic alternative. Anna also hunts for natural bacteria in Perth’s Swan River Estuary to learn more about microbial plastic degradation in our oceans. In this talk, Anna explains how synthetic biology turns marine bacteria into the superheroes we need in the fight against plastic pollution.