The laboratory, called PoPLaB, is the result of seven years of collaboration that, to date, has created a process for polylactic acid biodegradation and the first 100% polyethylene terephthalate bottles made from Carbios’ biorecycling technology.
“The creation of this laboratory represents several years of fruitful research devoted to the discovery and optimization of enzymes for the degradation and synthesis of polymers,” says Alain Marty, Scientific Director of Carbios. “This laboratory will benefit from state-of-the-art equipment in terms of enzyme modeling and understanding of plastic hydrolysis molecular mechanisms, high-throughput enzyme evolution platforms, all based on highly qualified researchers. This will enable us to take up new challenges by enlarging the range of polymers accessible to our enzymatic technology.”
The lab will be inaugurated later this month.