University Of Leicester Students Aim To Use DNA To Create
Environmental Solution To Pollution - 22 April 2012 - Company &
Industry News Competition sees undergraduates design a novel
genetically engineered organism. University of Leicester
students are set to try their hand at genetic engineering - and
hope to create a new organism which could rid us of decades of
plastic rubbish. Second-year Biological Sciences undergraduates
are taking part in the International Genetically Engineered
Machine (iGEM) competition this summer, and aim to construct a
biological machine that can efficiently degrade polystyrene.
Polystyrene has been used in plastic packaging for years, but
takes up to hundreds of years to biodegrade and requires
temperatures of more than 1000°C to be combusted. The breakdown
products can also contain chemicals that are thought to cause
cancer. The group of around 10 students aims to create an
organism that can rapidly degrade polystyrene in an
environmentally friendly way by using standard DNA par