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<div><font color="#000000"><b>SUMMER UROP opening in Sinskey
Lab</b></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><b>Please contact Charles Budde
cbudde@mit.edu for more info</b></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><b><br></b></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><b>******</b></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><b>Sinskey Lab UROP Opening, Summer
2007<br>
<br>
Project Description<br>
</b>Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are natural polyesters synthesized by
a variety of bacteria. These polymers have excellent material
properties and can potentially replace many traditional synthetic
plastics. One shortcoming of PHAs is that they cannot be used to
produce transparent materials. Transparent plastics are widely
used, especially in the packaging industry. One type of
transparent plastic that can be made from renewable resources is
polylactic acid (PLA). Our lab is working to develop a system to
synthesize PLA enzymatically both<i> in vitro</i> and<i> in vivo</i>.
This involves altering metabolic pathways to produce PLA monomers and
manipulating PHA synthase enzymes to increase the rate of PLA
synthesis. Students working on this project will help with
strain construction, enzyme characterization, and polymer testing.<br>
<br>
<b>Contact Information<br>
</b>Charles Budde<br>
cbudde@mit.edu<br>
<br>
<b>Course Requirements<br>
</b>7.02<br>
<br>
<b>Will consider students without 7.02?<br>
</b>No</font><br>
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