Development of Plastic Degrading Algae
Location
CoLab, COM 147
Start Date
30-4-2026 9:30 AM
Document Type
Poster
Description
Plastic pollution is a growing environmental crisis with long-lasting impacts on ecosystems, wildlife, and human health. With traditional plastic disposal plans being proven insufficient and great need for an innovative solution has occurred. The goal of this research project is to develop plastic-degrading algae that offer a biological approach to reducing environmental plastic waste. To achieve this, we introduced DNA into Chlorella vulgaris algae cells using electroporation. We then took our best growth and screened for clones to test the DNA of our algae and make more. From there, we were able to add our algae and BG-11 media into petri dishes with plastic to test our degradation percentage. Future research will focus on increasing degradation efficiency and testing real-world conditions.
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Development of Plastic Degrading Algae
CoLab, COM 147
Plastic pollution is a growing environmental crisis with long-lasting impacts on ecosystems, wildlife, and human health. With traditional plastic disposal plans being proven insufficient and great need for an innovative solution has occurred. The goal of this research project is to develop plastic-degrading algae that offer a biological approach to reducing environmental plastic waste. To achieve this, we introduced DNA into Chlorella vulgaris algae cells using electroporation. We then took our best growth and screened for clones to test the DNA of our algae and make more. From there, we were able to add our algae and BG-11 media into petri dishes with plastic to test our degradation percentage. Future research will focus on increasing degradation efficiency and testing real-world conditions.
Comments
The faculty mentor for this project was Heather Seitz.