October 7, 2024 • 16 mins
Plastics are foundational in modern life, but only a fraction of those produced are recycled. WashU researchers Arpita Bose, associate professor of biology; Eric Conners, a graduate student; and Tahina Ranaivoarisoa, a lab manager in the Bose Lab, discuss purple bacteria and how they might be used to produce biodegradable bioplastics.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
This is the Discovery Files podcastfrom the U.S.
National Science Foundation.
According to a U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency report,only 9% of plastic waste
ends up being recycledas plastic materials degrade,
which may take hundreds of yearsor possibly thousands in some cases.
Small microplastic fragmentsend up in the environment, in animals
(00:26):
and even in people, raising concernsabout potential health impacts.
As a result, more and more work is beingdone to develop more renewable polymers
and resulting bioplastics that can replacetraditional petroleum based plastics.
We're joined by Arpita Bose,associate professor of biology,
Eric Connors, a graduate student,and to he and Tahina Ranaivoarisoa,
(00:46):
a lab manager in the Bose lab at WashU,
where a pair of studies have recentlybeen published looking at purple bacteria
and how the polymers they makemight be used for bioplastics.
Thank you all for joining us today.
Thank you for having us.
So this is excitingand interesting work here.
Can we start with a broad scope?
What is the focus at Bose lab?
(01:08):
The Bose lab has been aroundfor about ten years now,
trying to find solutions to big problemsthat humanity's facing.
Not only do we go to natureto find unique microorganisms,
but we also use tools ofgenetic engineering,
synthetic biologyto tame these microorganisms,
(01:29):
trying to find solutionsfor some big problems we are facing.
One of those solutions is bioplastics.
Can you tell me what are bioplastics forthe general audience that might not know?
And why would the use of bioplasticsbe beneficial?
One of the big things that we are facingright now is the petroleum
derived plastics don't degrade3D rapidly in the environment.
(01:53):
We have become extremely dependenton these kinds of plastics.
And then every day objects.
If you look around, you findso many things that are made of plastics.
And one thing we know for a fact is thatthe ocean ecosystems that we hear about
are really suffering from these plastics,and other organisms are really affected.
(02:14):
But in recent times,we've also heard of microplastics and how
microplastics can be very deleteriousfor all kinds of life.
Maybe you want to use stuffthat is easily degraded,
and bioplastics are a big answerto that question.
Take advantage ofsome of these good properties they have.
So one of the things we are doing inour lab is to really look at
(02:36):
how can we use extremely versatilemicroorganisms
to take waste materials,whether it's carbon dioxide,
whether it's wastewaterand then convert them into bioplastics?
How did you become interestedin these microorganisms,
in this case, purple bacteria?
Well, the bacteria are beautiful.
So, you know, plain and simple,photogenic,
(02:58):
microorganismsare really easy to work on.
They're easy on the eyes, you know.
So that put this genie the motivation.
But actually, I think they aresome of the most versatile
microorganisms on the face of our planet.
So thinking about solutionsfor big problems,
there are no better microbes to work on.
(03:20):
They're pretty beautiful, photogenic.
And this could solve the problems.
Eric, switching to you,can you summarize your paper a little bit
and tell ushow purple bacteria make its patches?
I think are a really good reminder thatwe share some pretty fundamental biology
with pretty much all life on Earth,including terrible bacteria.
(03:42):
Whenever youor I eat desserts with carbohydrates,
some of those carbsget stored away in our muscles and liver.
And then when we're really low on energy,like having to eat for several hours,
our bodies will tap into those
glycogen reserves as a source of energyto kind of keep things running smoothly
are basically the same thing for bacteria.
(04:05):
We're really interested in materialsthat show promise
as alternativesto petroleum based plastics.
And fortunately, these, pastas havesome properties that make them candidates.
So we're really interested
in learning more about howthe different organisms are synthesizing.
We set out to characterize PJ production
(04:26):
by two purple bacteria in the genusmicroglia.
And, I would argue that running microbial
are really understudieddespite being super interesting.
They have really interesting morphology.
They're pretty unique
among purple bacteriain terms of how they grow and divide.
But they do share some importantphysiology that we are interested in.
So we thought it was a good opportunityto expand the toolkit
(04:50):
and maybe learn a little bitmore about purple bacterial metabolism.
So we first combed through their genomesto make sure that they actually add
the genes that you need to make.
And once we confirm that,
we do them across a really widerange of growth conditions, varying
the key ingredients for synthesis, andthen just ask, how much are they making?
(05:12):
And it turns out not only do they makeacross all of these growth conditions,
but they're quite good at itcompared to some other organisms
that we tend to work with,particularly purple bacteria.
And our data suggeststhat part of the reason they're quite good
at accumulating energyis related to electron conversion.
Basically,it seems like they're really good
at taking electronsand funneling those electrons into masses.
(05:36):
And thisand some other literature suggests
that this electron conversionis a really small bottleneck.
And bio production probably generally,but certainly in terms of the synthesis.
So that tells us that as we kind ofthink about how to engineer strategies
for enhancing production, we really needto think about these bottlenecks
(05:56):
like electron conversion.It's important to look at microbes.
We tend to think about.
This is a bug that doesn'treally show up in the literature.
Turns out it'spretty good at what we ask it to do.
So Tahina, thinking about your study,can you summarize a little bit
how you were able to make purple bacteriamore productive?
All right.
So we have established a paperat the initial paper was we're using
just the white paper or the stimulus.
(06:18):
But it's just the main reasonwhy we're really attracted by this
particular is because of its abilityto throw in multiple different conditions.
We were trying to increasethe productivity of DHEA
using the ability of the bacteriato grow in different conditions.
So we tried, few constraints,genetic engineering.
(06:39):
So we touched the gene off the,there other pressures,
and we tried to remove some of the gene
that is naturally arising.
Yeah.
And we were
sitting about accumulating more,let's say by doing so,
we also removed some of the, competitive genes
(07:00):
like like gene,which is a carbon storage that we
then we will increase the abilityof the expansions
by one to fix more CO2because the photosynthetic bacterium.
So by increasing the ability of click,since we were true,
we were hoping to increase the availablecarbon source for the bacterium.
(07:22):
Then it would be naturally directed
to the accumulation of, say, a.
So among all the genetic engineering thatwe made, we noticed that the an increase
in the ability of the bacterium to fixmore sugar to was the most productive.
And that's why we get reallya significant increase of the achi
(07:43):
accumulation or translating with action.
Were there challengesgenetically engineering that bacteria?
Of course there's always a challenge,but that's also
one of the reasonwhy we chose the bacterium, because it's a
there's there's a lot of toolsand there are only two available.
And then there.
Yeah. You take some time printing.
(08:03):
Yeah. One mutant.
But it's not really likea really very big challenge.
It just takes time.
Are there challenges overall extracting
from bacteria? Yes.
Because first of all,the PHA is inside the cell.
So you have to separate the cell.
That leaves on the polymer.
(08:24):
We do usually organic extraction.
And so you were talkingabout the natural scale.
That'd be a challenge because of the priceof the solvent and the extraction steps.
So, Professor Bose, how has NSF supportmade this overall work possible?
Gosh, it's donea lot without their support.
(08:46):
I don't think that Eric in teachingwould have been able
to do any of this work, and they supportedthe rural microbiome work.
They supported the genetic engineering,synthetic biology work.
They see the promise in this.
And so their support means the world.
And I think that you can see the promise
that these kinds of technologiesmight have for us moving forward
(09:10):
and tackling some of these big problemswe are facing as humanity.
And I think said,you know, NSF has a huge contribution
and all of these avenues we are exploring.
So thinking about next steps and movingforward to some of those challenges,
what would need to happen to makethis scalable to be commercially viable?
(09:30):
The awesome thing is thatwe don't work in a vacuum, right?
So I was very fortunateto have been sought after
by European collaboratorsaround the same time that,
some of the original publicationson our bioplastic work were coming out.
We were also doing basic science researchto inform some of these explorations.
(09:52):
And what I foundwas that many of our European
colleagues are actually using wastewater,brewery wastewater in particular,
and they're using open pondsand different kinds
of ways of growing bacteriathere and mixed populations.
And they were harvesting global bacteria,biomass for bioplastics, actually.
(10:12):
So they were doing this commercializationin a way
that we were exploring in the lab setting.
And I think that there's a huge synergy.
And I think that the hope is that we canbring some of this thinking to the US.
We are doing a lot of thisground will create, of genetic
engineering and synthetic biologyof a natural for bacteria.
(10:34):
And now it's time to kind of get thatto the commercialization platform.
We can take some guidancefrom our European colleagues.
And, you know, I meet them, talk to them,I visit them.
And soI'm going to bring some of this to the US.
And it really speaksto how much the global community interacts
(10:54):
with each other and can really createa nice synergy of development.
I find thatI learn a lot from colleagues everywhere,
and I've noticed thatthere are lots of solutions
that are coming from different partsof the world, and having mechanisms that,
we have for more scientificexchange would really help.
(11:15):
Just look around this room, right?
I mean, we're all from different partsof the world originally,
and we're coming togetherin this synergistic way
for solving somethingthat we believe is a true problem.
Thinking about how the bacteria isfeeding on carbon, would it be possible
to use purple bacteriafor manmade carbon capture applications?
(11:37):
Yes. That was my broad thinkingwhen I started thinking about all of this.
There were several steps ahead.
And, you know, it's hard
to convince funders that, you know,this is a worthwhile thing
when you haven't produceda gram of live plastic right?
But that was the hope that, you know,we can actually commercialize this stuff
because it has the potential to sequestera lot of carbon.
(12:01):
It's a carbon negative process.
If you went on to creatingthis bioplastic, it's,
essentially carbon negative.
If you were to degrade this bioplastic,if you're making it using
the wayswe are envisioning, it's carbon neutral.
So I think that the hope is thatwe can sequester tons of carbon
in different forms.
(12:21):
And because these microorganismscan take carbon dioxide
and many different kinds of organic carbonsources, the ideas and the metals and,
and synthetic biologyonly enhances that limitless ness of it.
So to close things out,I'm going to go around the table here
and ask each of you kind of whatthe next steps in your research is.
(12:41):
So, Eric, maybe starting with you, can youtell me what's coming ahead for you?
So we're still in the early daysof learning about growing microbes,
and for example, or so we basically lookfor the genes in the genomes of each
microbial species based uponthe known genes in other microbes.
And we kind of put togetherthis putative cycle, but we still have to
(13:03):
functionally validate each of those genesbecause there are lots of candidates.
And that's the sort of work that basically
the team has been able to do in tier one.
So we're kind of onestep behind the third microbe.
And in terms of what we knowabout the role of each of those genes.
And even then, once we started to poke
and prod and get geneticsworking and running microbiome,
(13:25):
it still takes quite a bit of work to goin, like make those views
and functionally validate them,because it's not necessarily
the case that the, you know,the polymerase and tie Taiwan works
the same as the polymeraseand right a microbial.
So it really iscontext in organism specific.
So we're very much early days
and some things are trying to get upand running genetic systems.
(13:48):
The scale up is a big part of itfor us as well.
We do these things at small scales,which is great for high throughput,
kind of let's tackle a bunch of microbesand try to get some quick answers.
And once we have some good candidatesfor further exploration, then we want
Skelos up and get some more biomasswe can answer additional questions with.
There's a lot more to be done. It'sexciting.
(14:10):
To know. How about you?
What's coming upin the next couple of years for you?
So one, we've been talking aboutthose single mutant
strains that we made in the paperthat we just published.
They were just like single mutant.
So we have noticed thatby increasing the ability of the bacteria
to fix more, see what. True.
We have seen an increase of bioplastic accumulation.
(14:32):
So we want to combine multiple mutationsin one strain and then see it.
It's more than just like oneengineered strain.
As Professor Bose mentioned earlier,we're really focusing
on the carbonsequestration ability of K one.
So we want to work more toward that.
Like okay, what is the best conditionthat we can check.
(14:54):
Highest carbon selection,using the cheapest media to produce
more PHA and PSA.
And then that's mostlywe're going to focus on the next
coming years and out in the next comingpapers.
Professor Bose,I'll give you the last word.
What are you looking forwardto working on in the next few years?
Yeah, I think that the huge pushon artificial intelligence,
(15:17):
machine learningand such approaches is really opened.
My thinking around microbial explorationsand finding new microorganisms.
AI solution areas
also engineering microorganismsfor different kinds of solutions.
So I see my lab and me personally
taking advantageof some of these approaches for sure,
(15:39):
and getting to some of these modificationsfaster than we are doing right now.
So, you know, trying new techniques
that are available to usto really get there a little bit faster.
Special thanks to Arpita Boseto Tahina Ranaivoarisoa and Eric Connors.
For the discovery Files. I'm Nate Pottker.
You can watch video versions
of these conversations on our YouTubechannel by searching @NSFscience.
(16:02):
Please subscribe wherever you get podcastsand if you like our program,
share it with a friendand consider leaving a review.
Discover how the U.S.
National Science Foundationis advancing research at NSF.gov.
This is the Discovery Files podcastfrom the U.S.
National Science Foundation.
According to a U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency report,only 9% of plastic waste
ends up being recycledas plastic materials degrade,
which may take hundreds of yearsor possibly thousands in some cases.
Small microplastic fragmentsend up in the environment, in animals
(00:26):
and even in people, raising concernsabout potential health impacts.
As a result, more and more work is beingdone to develop more renewable polymers
and resulting bioplastics that can replacetraditional petroleum based plastics.
We're joined by Arpita Bose,associate professor of biology,
Eric Connors, a graduate student,and to he and Tahina Ranaivoarisoa,
(00:46):
a lab manager in the Bose lab at WashU,
where a pair of studies have recentlybeen published looking at purple bacteria
and how the polymers they makemight be used for bioplastics.
Thank you all for joining us today.
Thank you for having us.
So this is excitingand interesting work here.
Can we start with a broad scope?
What is the focus at Bose lab?
(01:08):
The Bose lab has been aroundfor about ten years now,
trying to find solutions to big problemsthat humanity's facing.
Not only do we go to natureto find unique microorganisms,
but we also use tools ofgenetic engineering,
synthetic biologyto tame these microorganisms,
(01:29):
trying to find solutionsfor some big problems we are facing.
One of those solutions is bioplastics.
Can you tell me what are bioplastics forthe general audience that might not know?
And why would the use of bioplasticsbe beneficial?
One of the big things that we are facingright now is the petroleum
derived plastics don't degrade3D rapidly in the environment.
(01:53):
We have become extremely dependenton these kinds of plastics.
And then every day objects.
If you look around, you findso many things that are made of plastics.
And one thing we know for a fact is thatthe ocean ecosystems that we hear about
are really suffering from these plastics,and other organisms are really affected.
(02:14):
But in recent times,we've also heard of microplastics and how
microplastics can be very deleteriousfor all kinds of life.
Maybe you want to use stuffthat is easily degraded,
and bioplastics are a big answerto that question.
Take advantage ofsome of these good properties they have.
So one of the things we are doing inour lab is to really look at
(02:36):
how can we use extremely versatilemicroorganisms
to take waste materials,whether it's carbon dioxide,
whether it's wastewaterand then convert them into bioplastics?
How did you become interestedin these microorganisms,
in this case, purple bacteria?
Well, the bacteria are beautiful.
So, you know, plain and simple,photogenic,
(02:58):
microorganismsare really easy to work on.
They're easy on the eyes, you know.
So that put this genie the motivation.
But actually, I think they aresome of the most versatile
microorganisms on the face of our planet.
So thinking about solutionsfor big problems,
there are no better microbes to work on.
(03:20):
They're pretty beautiful, photogenic.
And this could solve the problems.
Eric, switching to you,can you summarize your paper a little bit
and tell ushow purple bacteria make its patches?
I think are a really good reminder thatwe share some pretty fundamental biology
with pretty much all life on Earth,including terrible bacteria.
(03:42):
Whenever youor I eat desserts with carbohydrates,
some of those carbsget stored away in our muscles and liver.
And then when we're really low on energy,like having to eat for several hours,
our bodies will tap into those
glycogen reserves as a source of energyto kind of keep things running smoothly
are basically the same thing for bacteria.
(04:05):
We're really interested in materialsthat show promise
as alternativesto petroleum based plastics.
And fortunately, these, pastas havesome properties that make them candidates.
So we're really interested
in learning more about howthe different organisms are synthesizing.
We set out to characterize PJ production
(04:26):
by two purple bacteria in the genusmicroglia.
And, I would argue that running microbial
are really understudieddespite being super interesting.
They have really interesting morphology.
They're pretty unique
among purple bacteriain terms of how they grow and divide.
But they do share some importantphysiology that we are interested in.
So we thought it was a good opportunityto expand the toolkit
(04:50):
and maybe learn a little bitmore about purple bacterial metabolism.
So we first combed through their genomesto make sure that they actually add
the genes that you need to make.
And once we confirm that,
we do them across a really widerange of growth conditions, varying
the key ingredients for synthesis, andthen just ask, how much are they making?
(05:12):
And it turns out not only do they makeacross all of these growth conditions,
but they're quite good at itcompared to some other organisms
that we tend to work with,particularly purple bacteria.
And our data suggeststhat part of the reason they're quite good
at accumulating energyis related to electron conversion.
Basically,it seems like they're really good
at taking electronsand funneling those electrons into masses.
(05:36):
And thisand some other literature suggests
that this electron conversionis a really small bottleneck.
And bio production probably generally,but certainly in terms of the synthesis.
So that tells us that as we kind ofthink about how to engineer strategies
for enhancing production, we really needto think about these bottlenecks
(05:56):
like electron conversion.It's important to look at microbes.
We tend to think about.
This is a bug that doesn'treally show up in the literature.
Turns out it'spretty good at what we ask it to do.
So Tahina, thinking about your study,can you summarize a little bit
how you were able to make purple bacteriamore productive?
All right.
So we have established a paperat the initial paper was we're using
just the white paper or the stimulus.
(06:18):
But it's just the main reasonwhy we're really attracted by this
particular is because of its abilityto throw in multiple different conditions.
We were trying to increasethe productivity of DHEA
using the ability of the bacteriato grow in different conditions.
So we tried, few constraints,genetic engineering.
(06:39):
So we touched the gene off the,there other pressures,
and we tried to remove some of the gene
that is naturally arising.
Yeah.
And we were
sitting about accumulating more,let's say by doing so,
we also removed some of the, competitive genes
(07:00):
like like gene,which is a carbon storage that we
then we will increase the abilityof the expansions
by one to fix more CO2because the photosynthetic bacterium.
So by increasing the ability of click,since we were true,
we were hoping to increase the availablecarbon source for the bacterium.
(07:22):
Then it would be naturally directed
to the accumulation of, say, a.
So among all the genetic engineering thatwe made, we noticed that the an increase
in the ability of the bacterium to fixmore sugar to was the most productive.
And that's why we get reallya significant increase of the achi
(07:43):
accumulation or translating with action.
Were there challengesgenetically engineering that bacteria?
Of course there's always a challenge,but that's also
one of the reasonwhy we chose the bacterium, because it's a
there's there's a lot of toolsand there are only two available.
And then there.
Yeah. You take some time printing.
(08:03):
Yeah. One mutant.
But it's not really likea really very big challenge.
It just takes time.
Are there challenges overall extracting
from bacteria? Yes.
Because first of all,the PHA is inside the cell.
So you have to separate the cell.
That leaves on the polymer.
(08:24):
We do usually organic extraction.
And so you were talkingabout the natural scale.
That'd be a challenge because of the priceof the solvent and the extraction steps.
So, Professor Bose, how has NSF supportmade this overall work possible?
Gosh, it's donea lot without their support.
(08:46):
I don't think that Eric in teachingwould have been able
to do any of this work, and they supportedthe rural microbiome work.
They supported the genetic engineering,synthetic biology work.
They see the promise in this.
And so their support means the world.
And I think that you can see the promise
that these kinds of technologiesmight have for us moving forward
(09:10):
and tackling some of these big problemswe are facing as humanity.
And I think said,you know, NSF has a huge contribution
and all of these avenues we are exploring.
So thinking about next steps and movingforward to some of those challenges,
what would need to happen to makethis scalable to be commercially viable?
(09:30):
The awesome thing is thatwe don't work in a vacuum, right?
So I was very fortunateto have been sought after
by European collaboratorsaround the same time that,
some of the original publicationson our bioplastic work were coming out.
We were also doing basic science researchto inform some of these explorations.
(09:52):
And what I foundwas that many of our European
colleagues are actually using wastewater,brewery wastewater in particular,
and they're using open pondsand different kinds
of ways of growing bacteriathere and mixed populations.
And they were harvesting global bacteria,biomass for bioplastics, actually.
(10:12):
So they were doing this commercializationin a way
that we were exploring in the lab setting.
And I think that there's a huge synergy.
And I think that the hope is that we canbring some of this thinking to the US.
We are doing a lot of thisground will create, of genetic
engineering and synthetic biologyof a natural for bacteria.
(10:34):
And now it's time to kind of get thatto the commercialization platform.
We can take some guidancefrom our European colleagues.
And, you know, I meet them, talk to them,I visit them.
And soI'm going to bring some of this to the US.
And it really speaksto how much the global community interacts
(10:54):
with each other and can really createa nice synergy of development.
I find thatI learn a lot from colleagues everywhere,
and I've noticed thatthere are lots of solutions
that are coming from different partsof the world, and having mechanisms that,
we have for more scientificexchange would really help.
(11:15):
Just look around this room, right?
I mean, we're all from different partsof the world originally,
and we're coming togetherin this synergistic way
for solving somethingthat we believe is a true problem.
Thinking about how the bacteria isfeeding on carbon, would it be possible
to use purple bacteriafor manmade carbon capture applications?
(11:37):
Yes. That was my broad thinkingwhen I started thinking about all of this.
There were several steps ahead.
And, you know, it's hard
to convince funders that, you know,this is a worthwhile thing
when you haven't produceda gram of live plastic right?
But that was the hope that, you know,we can actually commercialize this stuff
because it has the potential to sequestera lot of carbon.
(12:01):
It's a carbon negative process.
If you went on to creatingthis bioplastic, it's,
essentially carbon negative.
If you were to degrade this bioplastic,if you're making it using
the wayswe are envisioning, it's carbon neutral.
So I think that the hope is thatwe can sequester tons of carbon
in different forms.
(12:21):
And because these microorganismscan take carbon dioxide
and many different kinds of organic carbonsources, the ideas and the metals and,
and synthetic biologyonly enhances that limitless ness of it.
So to close things out,I'm going to go around the table here
and ask each of you kind of whatthe next steps in your research is.
(12:41):
So, Eric, maybe starting with you, can youtell me what's coming ahead for you?
So we're still in the early daysof learning about growing microbes,
and for example, or so we basically lookfor the genes in the genomes of each
microbial species based uponthe known genes in other microbes.
And we kind of put togetherthis putative cycle, but we still have to
(13:03):
functionally validate each of those genesbecause there are lots of candidates.
And that's the sort of work that basically
the team has been able to do in tier one.
So we're kind of onestep behind the third microbe.
And in terms of what we knowabout the role of each of those genes.
And even then, once we started to poke
and prod and get geneticsworking and running microbiome,
(13:25):
it still takes quite a bit of work to goin, like make those views
and functionally validate them,because it's not necessarily
the case that the, you know,the polymerase and tie Taiwan works
the same as the polymeraseand right a microbial.
So it really iscontext in organism specific.
So we're very much early days
and some things are trying to get upand running genetic systems.
(13:48):
The scale up is a big part of itfor us as well.
We do these things at small scales,which is great for high throughput,
kind of let's tackle a bunch of microbesand try to get some quick answers.
And once we have some good candidatesfor further exploration, then we want
Skelos up and get some more biomasswe can answer additional questions with.
There's a lot more to be done. It'sexciting.
(14:10):
To know. How about you?
What's coming upin the next couple of years for you?
So one, we've been talking aboutthose single mutant
strains that we made in the paperthat we just published.
They were just like single mutant.
So we have noticed thatby increasing the ability of the bacteria
to fix more, see what. True.
We have seen an increase of bioplastic accumulation.
(14:32):
So we want to combine multiple mutationsin one strain and then see it.
It's more than just like oneengineered strain.
As Professor Bose mentioned earlier,we're really focusing
on the carbonsequestration ability of K one.
So we want to work more toward that.
Like okay, what is the best conditionthat we can check.
(14:54):
Highest carbon selection,using the cheapest media to produce
more PHA and PSA.
And then that's mostlywe're going to focus on the next
coming years and out in the next comingpapers.
Professor Bose,I'll give you the last word.
What are you looking forwardto working on in the next few years?
Yeah, I think that the huge pushon artificial intelligence,
(15:17):
machine learningand such approaches is really opened.
My thinking around microbial explorationsand finding new microorganisms.
AI solution areas
also engineering microorganismsfor different kinds of solutions.
So I see my lab and me personally
taking advantageof some of these approaches for sure,
(15:39):
and getting to some of these modificationsfaster than we are doing right now.
So, you know, trying new techniques
that are available to usto really get there a little bit faster.
Special thanks to Arpita Boseto Tahina Ranaivoarisoa and Eric Connors.
For the discovery Files. I'm Nate Pottker.
You can watch video versions
of these conversations on our YouTubechannel by searching @NSFscience.
(16:02):
Please subscribe wherever you get podcastsand if you like our program,
share it with a friendand consider leaving a review.
Discover how the U.S.
National Science Foundationis advancing research at NSF.gov.
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