To address the growing plastic waste problem, a team of university and industry researchers has received funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop durable, reusable bioplastics. Beyond their environmental benefits, these bioplastics produced from domestically sourced raw materials could also strengthen U.S. supply chains and manufacturing.

The global plastics industry is valued at nearly $1 trillion, with over 400 million metric tons produced in 2022, yet only about 10% is recycled. With support from a $7 million NSF grant, Karthik Sankaranarayanan, assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering at Purdue University, and his collaborators are designing novel enzymes proteins that accelerate chemical reactions to convert biomass into biodegradable plastics.

These engineered enzymes will allow the new bioplastics, known as polyhydroxyalkanoates, to match the durability and flexibility of conventional petroleum based plastics while being derived from U.S. feedstocks such as corn, sugar, and agricultural waste. Nearly 99% of today’s plastics are made from imported petrochemicals, Sankaranarayanan explained. We aim to leverage locally available resources, like those widely grown in Indiana.

Unlike conventional plastics, PHAs can be broken down into their basic building blocks and reused indefinitely. Although PHAs were discovered almost a century ago, their fragility and instability at high temperatures have limited their commercial use. This project seeks to overcome those barriers by tuning polymer structures for strength and heat resistance, paving the way for applications from packaging to biomedical devices.

The three year initiative focuses on biocatalysis using enzymes to drive highly specific, sustainable chemical reactions. Purdue researchers are developing algorithms to identify promising enzymes and reaction pathways. UCSF will use advanced deep learning based protein design methods to engineer the enzymes, which will then be tested at Stanford for functionality and analyzed at Purdue for reaction speed and polymer structure. UC Berkeley will assess the materials’ properties, commercial viability, and microbial engineering strategies for scaling up production.

One major hurdle is adapting polyketide synthases complex enzymes that naturally build antibiotics for industrial scale bioplastic production. PKSs must be engineered both to produce the desired bioplastics and to remain stable under manufacturing conditions. Their DNA makeup, rich in guanine and cytosine, also complicates synthetic production. Twist Bioscience, a project partner, is supplying the technology to overcome this challenge. “Collaborating with Purdue allows us to transform difficult DNA sequences into something we can reliably manufacture,said Twist CEO Emily Leproust.

The project will also create training opportunities for students and share resources with the wider scientific community. Three graduate students have already joined, with undergraduate positions soon to follow across multiple disciplines. All tools and workflows will be released as open source, extending applications to pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and other biomaterials like rubber. UCSF and Purdue will also co lead workshops on protein design and enzyme process engineering.

Sankaranarayanan emphasized the collaborative nature of the effort: What excites me most is the chance for students and researchers from different universities to work together, each bringing their own expertise.

The initiative is funded through NSF’s Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships under the Use Inspired Acceleration of Protein Design program.

Source: https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/2025/Q3/researchers-leverage-advanced-bioengineering-techniques-to-develop-plastics-made-from-sustainable-biomaterials/?utm_source=chatgpt.com