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Bacteria Turns Plastic Into Pain Relief? That Gives Me An Idea.
A remarkable experiment has resulted in a bacterium learning how to convert plastic into pain relief.
Paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen, is widely used to treat pain and fever. It is produced from molecules derived from fossil fuels, but researchers are working to develop processes that use more sustainable source molecules, such as plastic waste.
“We’re able to transform a prolific environmental and societal waste into such a globally important medication in a way that’s completely impossible using chemistry alone or using biology alone,” says co-author Stephen Wallace, a chemical biotechnologist at the University of Edinburgh, UK.
To convert plastic waste into paracetamol, the researchers used conventional chemical methods to degrade and modify polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a plastic used in food packaging and textiles, into a precursor molecule. They added this molecule into bacterium Escherichia coli cell culture, where the Lossen rearrangement transformed it into a biologically relevant molecule.
The authors also modified the E. coli, introducing the genes for enzymes able to catalyse reactions that use the product of the Lossen rearrangement. The enzymes produced by the modified E. coli carried out the remaining synthetic steps needed to create paracetamol. When the researchers gave the degraded PET to these bacteria, 92% was converted to paracetamol.
(Via Nature.)
Of course, I'd reference the well-known plastic-eating bacteria from Michael Crichton's 1969 novel The Andromeda Strain for this story, but I have another idea in mind.
What if I had some sort of chronically painful condition, and I colonized my gut bacteria with this modified E. coli, and made my own pain reliever? Now you're talking.
It's not an exact match, but for that idea, I might reference the Crosswell tapeworm, a perfectly safe parasite for the small intestine, that allows the host to overeat without consequence. From Super-Toys Last All Summer Long (1969) by Brian Aldiss.
A common bacterium can be adapted to convert plastic waste into paracetamol, a study published this week in Nature Chemistry reports.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 6/15/2025)
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