{"id":7849,"date":"2025-06-24T05:46:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T09:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/?p=7849"},"modified":"2025-06-24T05:46:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T09:46:00","slug":"scientists-bioengineer-bacteria-that-turns-plastic-trash-into-acetaminophen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/?p=7849","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Bioengineer Bacteria That Turns Plastic Trash Into Acetaminophen"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Plastic pollution is a royal headache, but researchers at the University of Edinburgh have devised a way to turn this ecological scourge into a common painkiller.<\/p>\n

In a study published in the journal\u00a0Nature Chemistry<\/a><\/em>, scientists in Scotland describe a process in which E. coli, a common bacterium, feeds on PET plastic and converts it into organic substances, specifically acetaminophen, also called paracetamol, a common medication used to treat pain.<\/p>\n

Scientists discovered that a chemical process called Lossen rearrangement is biocompatible, meaning it can be carried out harmlessly within living cells. Armed with this discovery, scientists converted PET into a new material using sustainable methods. Then, they incubated the material in a bioengineered strain of E. coli, which forced the bacteria to utilize the PET-based substance to produce Para-Aminobenzoic Acid (PABA), a crucial substance required by E. coli for DNA synthesis.<\/p>\n