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Edinburgh Reporter
17-07-2025
- Health
- Edinburgh Reporter
Scientists Successfully Modify E. Coli to Convert Waste Plastic into Painkiller Ingredient
Scientists at the University of Edinburgh have made an exciting breakthrough. They used genetic engineering to modify common E. coli bacteria. The modified bacteria can now turn plastic bottle material (PET) into painkiller medicine (paracetamol). Photo by masakazu sasaki on Unsplash Introduction Scientists at the University of Edinburgh have made an exciting breakthrough. They used genetic engineering to modify common E. coli bacteria. The modified bacteria can now turn plastic bottle material (PET) into painkiller medicine (paracetamol). The conversion rate reaches an impressive 92%. The entire process was carried out in 24 hours at room temperature with no toxic byproducts discovered. The Two Materials Paracetamol is the most popular non-anti-inflammatory antipyretic and analgesic drug, and the best form of drugs that fall under acetanilide. It is particularly for patients who are not able to use carboxylic acid drugs. PET is a pale yellow or milky white, very crystalline polymer with a smooth, shiny surface. It possesses good physical and mechanical properties in a wide temperature range, and the service temperature is to 120°C. PET also has good electrical insulation properties and good electrical performance up to high temperatures and high frequencies. PET films may be used in liquid crystal displays to provide transparent conducting layers. The Modification Method In essence, the researchers first used green chemical processes to convert PET plastic into an intermediate compound. The intermediate would then react with E. coli, triggering the 'Lossen rearrangement reaction.' This reaction was, for the first time, proven to be biocompatible (harmless to living cells), with cell phosphates catalyzing the process (traditionally involving inhumane lab conditions). For the aforementioned genetic editing procedure, the scientists halted the metabolic pathway through which the bacteria synthesize para-aminobenzoic acid (Paba) and introduced mushroom and soil bacteria genes to metabolize Paba to paracetamol. Project leader Professor Stephen Wallace stated: 'People don't know today that raw materials for making paracetamol come from petroleum. This technology is the first one to bring together chemistry and biology, allowing us to manufacture pharmaceuticals sustainably and at the same time, resolve plastic pollution.' Although the commercialization process has not been achieved, Wallace pointed out that 'this is the first synthetic route from plastic waste to paracetamol, which cannot be done with single-discipline technology.' Source: Nature Like this: Like Related
South China Morning Post
14-07-2025
- Health
- South China Morning Post
Scientists use bacteria to turn plastic waste into medicine
Scientists have discovered a way to turn plastic waste into painkillers using bacteria. One of the most widely used medicines worldwide is paracetamol. It is made from fossil fuel by-products, often through cheap and polluting methods. A team of British researchers wanted to reduce plastic waste and climate change. They looked at the bacteria which is usually known for making people sick if they eat contaminated food. First, the chemists used a molecule derived from PET plastic – which is used in bottles and many other plastic products – to spark a chemical reaction in a strain of This created a new molecule, according to the study in Nature Chemistry. The chemists were able to transform their molecule into paracetamol. This work shows that PET plastic can be transformed into valuable new products, the study's lead, Stephen Wallace, said.
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Scientists engineer bacteria to turn plastic waste into painkillers
Tales of turning water into wine or weaving straw into gold are one thing, but a new study shows that scientists can transform trash into . . . Tylenol? No tax on tips or overtime, with a catch: What to know as Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' passes the Senate The housing market is shifting—here's where it's happening most rapidly Scaling content production: Marketers meeting rising demand with generative AI Scientists at the University of Edinburgh were able to convert plastic waste into paracetamol, aka acetaminophen, the active ingredient in the pain reliever Tylenol. Stranger yet, they pulled off the alchemical feat using the bacteria E. coli. 'We're able to transform a prolific environmental and societal waste into such a globally important medication in a way that's completely impossible, using chemistry alone or using biology alone,' says study coauthor Stephen Wallace, a chemical biotechnologist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. The research team began with polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a common plastic found in food packaging and polyester clothing. Using established chemical methods, they broke down the PET plastic into a precursor molecule and then added it into a cell culture of E. coli that was genetically modified. Enzymes in the modified E. coli bacteria were able to convert the plastic precursor into paracetamol 92% of the time. The transformation relies on a chemical process known as a Lossen rearrangement, which can convert one kind of molecule into a different kind of molecule. Scientists have known about the Lossen rearrangement for more than 100 years, but generally observe the phenomenon in a flask or a test tube. The research group is now working with pharmaceutical makers including AstraZeneca, one of the study's sponsors, to replicate the same chemical transformations on a larger scale. The new research isn't the first to observe the way that bacteria can be deployed to usefully break down plastic. Researchers have previously studied how wastewater bacteria found in urban waterways use a special enzyme to chew up plastic trash and convert it into carbon-based food. As we grapple with the cascading environmental and health effects that decades of proliferating plastics have wrought on the planet, bacteria capable of converting plastic into harmless or even useful molecules is a promising area of research. This post originally appeared at to get the Fast Company newsletter:
Reuters
04-07-2025
- Health
- Reuters
Health Rounds: Widely used pain drug can be made from plastic waste
July 4 (Reuters) - (This is an excerpt of the Health Rounds newsletter, where we present latest medical studies on Tuesdays and Thursdays. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox for free sign up here.) Common bacteria can turn plastic waste into the over-the-counter painkiller acetaminophen, researchers have discovered. Acetaminophen, the main ingredient in Tylenol and also known as paracetamol in some countries, is usually made from fossil fuels. The new method, developed with support from AstraZeneca (AZN.L), opens new tab, transforms a molecule from a widely used plastic known as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into Tylenol's active ingredient, leaving virtually no carbon emissions, according to a report in Nature Chemistry, opens new tab. The plastic is converted to the drug at room temperature in less than 24 hours, using a fermentation process similar to what is used in brewing beer, the researchers said. PET, a strong, lightweight plastic used for water bottles and food packaging, accounts for more than 350 million tons of waste annually. 'This work demonstrates that PET plastic isn't just waste or a material destined to become more plastic. It can be transformed by microorganisms into valuable new products, including those with potential for treating disease,' study leader Stephen Wallace of the University of Edinburgh said in a statement. More work is needed before PET can be used to produce acetaminophen at commercial levels, the researchers said. The majority of men and women have microplastics in their reproductive fluids, according to the results of a small study, opens new tab reported at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, opens new tab meeting in Paris. The presence of the microplastics raises important questions about their potential risks to fertility and reproductive health, researchers said. The tiny contaminants – plastic particles under 5 millimeters in size – were present in the follicular fluid that encases developing eggs in the ovaries in 20 of 29 women, or 69%. Microplastics were found in seminal fluid in 12 of 22 men, or 55%. Both types of fluid play critical roles in natural conception and assisted reproduction, the researchers said. In both groups, the microplastic polymers included polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon), polystyrene, polyethylene terephthalate, polyamide, polypropylene and polyurethane. In animals, microplastics can induce inflammation, damage to tissues and to DNA, and hormonal disruptions, study leader Emilio Gomez-Sanchez of Next Fertility Murcia in Spain said in a statement. In a separate presentation, opens new tab at the meeting, Manel Boussabeh of Fattouma Bourguiba Hospital in Monastir, Tunisia, and colleagues reported that sperm exposed to microplastics in test tubes had impaired motility and damage to DNA. Other researchers have previously found, opens new tab significant amounts of microplastics in the testicles of dogs and humans, and the canine data suggested the particles may contribute to impaired fertility. Researchers can turn off chronic inflammation while leaving intact the ability of cells to respond to short-term injuries and illnesses by targeting a newly identified protein, according to a report in Nature, opens new tab. Chronic inflammation occurs when the immune system is stuck in overdrive, as with persistent conditions such as arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease or obesity. Acute inflammation – with pain, fever, swelling, and redness, for example – resolves relatively quickly. Researchers found that a protein responsible for controlling inflammatory genes becomes degraded and is lost from cells during chronic inflammation. In test tube experiments, restoring the protein called WSTF blocked chronic inflammation in human cells without interfering with acute inflammation, allowing appropriate immune responses to short-term threats. The researchers then designed a medicine that protects WSTF from degradation and suppresses chronic inflammation by blocking the WSTF interaction with another protein in the cell nucleus. The researchers have successfully tested the drug to treat mice with fatty liver disease or arthritis and to reduce inflammation in chronically inflamed knee cells obtained from patients undergoing joint replacement surgery. Studying human tissue samples, the researchers found that WSTF is lost in the livers of patients with fatty liver disease but not in the livers of healthy people. 'Chronic inflammatory diseases cause a great deal of suffering and death, but we still have much to learn about what drives chronic inflammation and how to treat it,' study leader Zhixun Dou of Massachusetts General Hospital said in a statement. 'Our findings help us separate chronic and acute inflammation, as well as identify a new target for stopping chronic inflammation that results from aging and disease.' (To receive the full newsletter in your inbox for free sign up here)
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Engineered E. Coli Transforms Waste Plastic Into Common Painkiller
New research has made encouraging progress in tackling not one but two of the biggest problems facing our planet right now: plastic pollution and the use of fossil fuels as part of drug manufacturing processes. Scientists from the University of Edinburgh in the UK have used Escherichia coli bacteria to convert molecules from the widely used polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic into the painkiller acetaminophen (also known as paracetamol). Like a lot of drugs today, acetaminophen is mostly made out of fossil fuels. Switching those ingredients for waste products – like plastic – could offer an ingenious way of addressing two major environmental problems in one. It's going to take a while to scale this up and prove it can be effective at an industrially and commercially viable level, so we shouldn't get too far ahead of ourselves, but there's a lot of potential in the new technology. "This work demonstrates that PET plastic isn't just waste or a material destined to become more plastic – it can be transformed by microorganisms into valuable new products, including those with potential for treating disease," says biotechnologist Stephen Wallace from the University of Edinburgh. The process starts by chemically degrading PET bottles. The resulting molecules are then fed to engineered E. coli, which use phosphate as a catalyst to convert the molecules into an organic compound containing nitrogen. Finally, these compounds are turned into the active ingredient of acetaminophen. Among the numerous advantages of the process are that it can be completed in 24 hours in a compact laboratory setup, and that it works at room temperature, so there's no need for excessive heating or cooling. What's more, the team has managed to get it working at an impressively efficient 92-percent yield. The reaction makes use of a well-established chemical reaction called the Lossen rearrangement, named after German chemist Wilhelm Lossen, who discovered it in 1872. Here, the reaction is made biocompatible so it can work in cells and living bacteria. Related: This was all done using PET bottles, but the plastic is also used extensively in food packaging, furniture, and manufacturing. This type of plastic is estimated to account for more than 350 million tons of waste per year, adding to the plastic pollution burden. The same approach might also work for other types of bacteria and other types of plastic, according to the researchers, so there's potential here for more environmentally friendly recycling and drug production options. It's a powerful example of how both natural and synthetic chemistry can be combined to find solutions to problems and drive innovation, and it may ultimately mean that E. coli plays a part in the production of our pain relief in the future. "Nature has evolved an exquisite yet limited set of chemical reactions that underpin the function of all living organisms," write the researchers. "By contrast, the field of synthetic organic chemistry can access reactivity not observed in nature, and integration of these abiotic reactions within living systems offers an elegant solution to the sustainable synthesis of many industrial chemicals from renewable feedstocks." The research has been published in Nature Chemistry. The Human Epoch Doesn't Officially Exist. But We Know When It Began. Flesh-Eating Fly Invasion Could Cause Devastation Across America Ocean Acidity Has Reached Critical Levels, And We're All Under Threat
