Accidental Enzyme

In April 2018, scientists announced a near miracle  -  the discovery of an micro that eats a common plastic used in bottles.  The public has been chattering ever since.  The microbe could potentially help solve the nagging environmental problem of plastics pollution.  Plastics take hundreds of years to degrade, leaving a stream of toxic ocean flotsam and poisonous landfill scum.     

A series began here with the post ”Plastic Contagion” on April 13, 2018, discussed the downside of plastics and existing remedies to reduce plastics contamination.  There are few investment options in part because there are few options to deal with plastic  -  other than making more of it.  Thus the prospect of investing in plastic eating microbes is tantalizing.  Even then, the most patient investor may be disappointed.  There is lengthy research and development still ahead before the technology is perfected and can be translated into a commercial product or service.

This miraculous microbe was originally found by accident in the soil at a bottle recycling plant in the port city of Sakai, Japan.  Eventually named Ideonella sakaiensis, the microbe was noshing on bottles made from polyethylene teraphthalate or PET for short.  PET is widely used for soda or water, in part because it is so durable.  Expect those bottles to be around four to five centuries after the drink is gone  -  unless that plastic-eating microbe gets a hold of it.  Ideonella sakaiensis can degrade PET within a few days.

PET is a relatively new in our world.  Scientists perfected the plastic formulation just sixty years ago.  Then it took a while before the idea of recycling took hold that eventually led to the collection of prodigious amounts of plastic in the central location of a recycling plant.  Thus Ideonella sakaiensis has only had a few years to perfect its digestive talents.  The microbe is still working at an experimental pace and will need time to achieve industrial scale.

A number of scientists are trying to accelerate Ideonella sakaiensis progress.  Researchers at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have teamed up to create an improved variant of the enzyme.  The group described their achievement in a paper, “Characterization and Engineering of a Plastic-degrading Aromatic Polysterase”, published April 2018 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

Their accomplishments turned out to be as accidental as the discovery of Ideonella sakaiensis in the first place.  The group was trying to figure out how the microbe breaks down PET with its “PETase” enzyme by developing a three-dimensional model of it using the synchrotron at the Diamond Light Source in the United Kingdom.  A synchrotron sends across intense beams of X-rays ten billion times brighter than the sun create a microscope effect.  It is powerful enough to see individual atoms.   

The team determined that the PETase enzyme looks very similar to the enzyme cutanase that other microbes use to break down plant matter.  As the scientists studied the differences between PETase and cutinase, they ended up engineering an improved enzyme by adding some amino acids.   

The NREL, University of Portsmouth and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council in the UK foot the bill for the fancy synchrotron.  Scientists are likely to continue relying on grants and gifts for additional research.  More funding will be needed if a product or service is to be development and eventually investors may have a chance to put capital into a commercializing step.  Given the amount of plastic waste in the world, the commercial significance of a solution will be exceptional.   

Neither the author of the Small Cap Strategist web log, Crystal Equity Research nor its affiliates have a beneficial interest in the companies mentioned herein.