Engineers have given yeast the ability to produce a biodegradable, biocompatible, nontoxic synthetic polymer that is used in biomedical applications, such as surgical sutures, prosthetic devices, drug delivery, and tissue engineering.
Poly(lactate-co-glycolate) (PLGA) — a copolymer of lactic and glycolic acids — is typically synthesized by random ring-opening copolymerization of lactide and glycolide in the presence of catalysts, including tin(II) 2-ethylhexanoate and aluminum isopropoxide. The process is complicated and involves several steps, including the purification of precursors, polymerization, and the removal of unreacted raw materials and unused catalyst. The removal steps also add costs to the process.
To address these issues, researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) engineered Escherichia coli to produce PLGA in a one-step fermentation process directly from carbohydrates. They were able to modify the microorganism’s genetics to enable it to selectively produce a diverse range of different PLGAs...
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