Líffræðifélag Íslands - biologia.is
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2021
Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster E44
Höfundar / Authors: Sean Michael Scully (1,2)
Starfsvettvangur / Affiliations: 1. University of Akureyri, Department of Natural Resource Sciences, 2. Hemp Pack, ehf
Kynnir / Presenter: Sean Michael Scully
Bio-based and biodegradable polyesters, such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), are an area of active investigation as a means of replacing traditional plastics which are often recalcitrant environmental pollutants. We will cover the history, current status, and future of bio-based plastics with an emphasis on the future of microbially produced polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) with a special emphasis on the speaker’s bioprospecting efforts to find novel and versatile PHA-producing microorganisms that over an advantage of the few strains used industrially today. Work to date has not only uncovered a handful of promising Pseudomonas candidates isolated from Iceland’s glacial rivers and other cold environs but revealed some useful features that make them contenders for efficient and sustainable PHA production.