E. coli
-
Usually gets a bad rap, but it actually can be useful.
Earlier this year an extraordinary new way of using waste plastic made headlines.
A common bacterium was genetically engineered to eat a plastic-derived molecule and then digest it to produce the everyday painkiller, paracetamol.
The microbe used by Stephen Wallace, professor of chemical biotechnology at the University of Edinburgh, was Escherichia coli, better known as E. coli.
The rod-shaped bacterium is found in the intestines of humans and animals, and you might be more familiar with it as an unpleasant bug that can make us ill.
Prof Wallace chose it automatically because certain strains of E. coli that aren't pathogenic are used extensively in biotechnology and engineering biology laboratories to test whether something might work.
E. coli is the field's main "workhorse" says Prof Wallace, who has also genetically engineered it in the lab to turn plastic waste into vanilla flavour and fatberg waste from sewers into perfume.
"If you want to prove something is possible with biology, E.coli is a natural first stage," he says.
The microbe's use isn't just confined to the lab. Industrially, vats of genetically engineered E. coli act like living factories producing a variety of products from pharmaceuticals like insulin, vital for diabetes management, to various platform chemicals used to make fuels and solvents.
