ABOUT US
MIPLACE (Microbial Integration of Plastics in the Circular Economy) is a multidisciplinary project that aims to transform difficult-to-degrade plastics into molecules of industrial interest. For this purpose, MIPLACE will engineer microbial communities to make them degrade plastic waste (PET and PU) and use it as feedstock to transform it into high value-added molecules. These resulting substances will be used to produce an easily degradable material of commercial interest: bio-PU.
MIPLACE has a strong focus on sustainability, as it will deliver a novel biotechnological approach to manage the recycling of a material that would have ended up as waste otherwise.
GOALS
WORKFLOW
MIPLACE will deliver a complete pipeline for the transformation of waste into Bio-PU. Our approach is based on the design-build-test cycle that is common in engineering disciplines. We will use a combination of environmental screening of microorganisms and the understanding of microbial communities and their interactions. We will tailor microbe strains and communities for polymer degradation and monomer production using synthetic biology techniques and a biotechnological approach for the chemical synthesis of Bio-PU.
WP1
Microbial degradation of PET and PU: isolation from different sources of a wide range of microbial strains that can hydrolyse PET and PU.
WP2
Engineering microbial communities using plastic as feedstock: we will focus on the interaction between species that produce PET and PU hydrolases and bacterial species that can use the monomers as a carbon source.
WP3
Tailoring synthetic microbial communities for monomer production: we will develop bacteria strains to synthesise monomers based on PET. We will use the monomers of PET as carbon sources for P. putida strains that can synthesize monomers that can be used to make bio-PU and other sustainable plastics.
WP4
Analysis and design of enhanced communities: in order to guide the rest of the research activities, we will use computational and -omics methods to produce a quantitative understanding of microbial community performance and predict optimization strategies for all processes.
WP5
Synthesis and characterisation of Bio-PU: we will complete the pipeline using monomers derived from PET and PU degradation as building blocks to make bio-PU. In a second stage, the molecules obtained will be used for the elaboration of different Bio-PU materials.
WP1
Microbial degradation of PET and PU : isolation from different sources of a wide range of microbial strains that can hydrolyse PET and PU.
WP2
Engineering microbial communities using plastic as feedstock : we will focus on the interaction between species that produce PET and PU hydrolases and bacterial species that can use the monomers as carbon source.
WP3
Tailoring synthetic microbial communities for monomer production : we will develop bacteria strains to synthesise monomers based on PET. We will use the monomers of PET as carbon sources for P. putida strains that can synthesize monomers that can be used to make bio-PU and other sustainable plastics.
WP4
Analysis and design of enhanced communities : in order to guide the rest of the research activities, we will use computational and -omics methods to produce a quantitative understanding of microbial community performance and predict optimization strategies for all processes.
WP5
Synthesis and characterisation of Bio-PU : we will complete the pipeline using monomers derived from PET and PU degradation as building blocks to make bio-PU. In a second stage, the molecules obtained will be used for the elaboration of different Bio-PU materials.