Events

Microbial Solutions for Single Use Plastics

Join us for a science focused panel discussion on the topic of microbes and plastics featuring researchers and industry guests on November 25 at 3pm in DC 1302. Hear our exciting panel (David Levin, Hyung-Sool Lee, Komal Habib and Tej Gidda) giving a brief (5-8min) outline of their work as related to the topic, followed by a moderator led discussion for the rest of the hour.

Participate in our hackathon!

Hack the Plastics (see the event webpage for most complete details) is an 11-hour weekend long hackathon from 28 February – 1 March, 2020 at the University of Waterloo with the aim of tackling problems related to plastic pollution and incorporating a microbial-based solution.

CANCELLED

Presented by:

Joseph Bondy-Denomy, PhD
Assistant Professor
University of California, San Francisco
Dept. of Microbiology & Immunology

In the first monthly microbiology meetup, WCMR presents "Ancient Clostridium DNA and variants of tetanus neurotoxins associated with human archaeological remains" by Harold Hodgins from the Doxey lab.

Tuesday October 24, 2023

1-3 p.m. in HH 2107

Open to all faculty, students and postdocs who are interested.

November's Monthly Microbiology Meetup features Dr. Nikhil Thomas from Dalhousie University. 

Tuesday, November 28, 2023 from 1-3 p.m. in B1-266

"Attenuation of an unusual DNA superstructure regulates virulence in pathogenic Vibrio species." 

Rational manipulation of microbial communities for degrading PET plastic

Aaron Yip will present his work with Owen McArthur and the Ingalls/Aucoin lab

Abstract: 

Microplastics are a contaminant of global concern that pose risks to ecosystems and human health. Focusing on PET plastics, we present a proof-of-concept for reduction of microplastic pollution: in situ engineering of bacteria to biodegrade PET. We chose to focus on engineering bacteria in municipal wastewater because wastewater treatment plants are a major pathway by which microplastics enter natural ecosystems. Using a broad-host-range conjugative plasmid, we enabled various bacterial species from wastewater to secrete FAST-PETase, an engineered PET hydrolase that rapidly depolymerizes PET plastics at mesophilic temperatures. We found that FAST-PETase purified from the top-performing isolates could degrade about 40% of a 0.25 mm thick PET film within four days at 50 °C. We also demonstrate partial degradation of post-consumer PET over 5-7 days without enzyme purification by using diluted, spent culture supernatant from top-performing isolates. To better understand the efficacy of an in situ gene delivery approach, we are developing predictive models for horizontal gene transfer dynamics of our broad-host-range plasmid in structured microenvironments. Collectively, our work has broad implications for addressing the global plastic pollution problem by enabling bacteria from the environment to degrade PET in situ. We speculate that our findings may also have potential applications in engineering microbiomes for plastic upcycling.

Sequencing wastewater for pathogen and AMR surveillance

Delaney Nash, Ph.D. Candidate

Event page for W2024 WCMR Open House