[bioundgrd] Summer UROP opening in Sinskey lab

[Janice Chang]

SUMMER UROP opening in Sinskey Lab
Please contact Charles Budde cbudde at mit.edu for more info

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Sinskey Lab UROP Opening, Summer 2007

Project Description
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 in vitro and in vivo.  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.

Contact Information
Charles Budde
cbudde at mit.edu

Course Requirements
7.02

Will consider students without 7.02?
No
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