PAA Project
Poly Aspartic Acids (PAAs) are water soluble plastics that have a variety of uses, mainly as a super-swelling material in feminine hygiene products. River water bacteria Sphingomonas sp. KT-1 was discovered to degrade PAA to Oligoaspartic Acid (OAA) through specific cleavage of the β-amide linkages. The project goal is to characterize the 2 proteins that are responsible for PAA breakdown, and their monomeric forms to understand how to link the 2 proteins together to form a functioning chimera protein that can break down PAA to monomeric aspartic acid for protein engineering to catalyze the biodegradation of other xenobiotics.
Recent studies on this project involve investigating the stability of different lengths of PAA in the presence of varying concentrations of calcium ions due to PAA’s role in scale decentralisation, scale inhibition and corrosion inhibition.
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Past Members