Bioremediation of Plastic Pollution to Conserve Biodiversity (2025-2026)
Plastic pollution is one of the most pervasive environmental challenges worldwide, with millions of tons of plastic waste and associated chemical additives entering ecosystems each year. These materials can accumulate in the environment and food systems, posing risks to wildlife and potentially disrupting biological processes in humans. At the same time, bioremediation — using microorganisms to degrade pollutants — offers a promising pathway for addressing plastic waste.
Combining approaches from molecular biology, environmental science, bioinformatics and engineering, this project team examined the environmental and human health dimensions of plastic pollution. Team members investigated how chronic exposure to plastics and plastic-associated chemicals affects human biological systems while also identifying and engineering microorganisms capable of degrading plastic waste.
Team members pursued three complementary research areas.
- One group examined the cellular effects of plastic exposure using human cell models. For example, students exposed kidney (HK2) cells to polyethylene polymers (LDPE and HDPE) over extended periods and observed differences in cell proliferation rates, contributing to ongoing work examining molecular mechanisms underlying plastic-related cellular dysfunction.
- A second group developed bioinformatic models to predict enzymes capable of plastic degradation, enabling the identification of novel microbial candidates with structural and sequence similarities to known plastic-degrading enzymes.
- A third group experimentally tested promising microbial degraders under controlled laboratory conditions, optimizing parameters such as plastic form, temperature and growth media while exploring potential scalability of microbial plastic remediation systems.
Across these efforts, the team curated a library of micro- and nanoplastics, chemical additives and leachates for experimental testing and produced a comprehensive review examining the evolution of microbial plastic degradation. Together, these activities generated new insights into the biological impacts of plastic exposure and advanced the search for scalable microbial solutions to plastic waste.
Timing
Fall 2025 – Spring 2026
Team Outputs
Degrading Plastic, Defending Life (Team Profile)
Plastic Pollution: Health Impacts and Bioremediation (Poster presentation at the Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Showcase, April 15, 2026)
Review article on the evolution of microbial plastic degradation (manuscript submitted)
Experimental datasets on cellular responses to plastic polymers, additives and leachates
Library of microplastics, nanoplastics and plastic additive samples for laboratory testing
Bioinformatic models predicting candidate plastic-degrading enzymes
Experimental evaluation of microbial plastic degradation systems
Manuscripts in progress
See related teams, Bioremediation of Plastic Pollution to Conserve Biodiversity (2024-2025) and Bioremediation of Plastic Pollution to Conserve Biodiversity (2026-2027)