I can extract side effects.

Chapter 400 The Super Enzyme Comes Out

"My God, Brother Long, I admire you so much, no wonder they call you a problem killer, you are so awesome!"

Williams sat in front of the electron microscope, staring unblinkingly at the petri dish, his mouth bursting with wonder.

Wearing a simple lab coat, Wen Renlong stood aside with a smug smile.

"How does the improved super enzyme perform in the experiment?"

Williams nodded furiously, but he was reluctant to move his eyes away from the camera for even a second, and chattered endlessly.

"It's great. The original three enzymes are all monomeric enzymes, which only have a single function, and the efficiency is not high. After our improvement and enhancement, the degradation rate of each enzyme has increased by 20 times, which is already very good. .”

"We observed the 3D molecular structures of the three enzymes, used the observation results to design the connection between the three enzymes, and then simply combined the three modified enzymes together, unexpectedly producing such a violent reaction. "

"This specially designed link, which combines the three enzymes, creates a 'super enzyme' capable of degrading plastic hundreds of times faster."

"The plastic that used to take a week to degrade can now be completely decomposed into plastic monomers in less than an hour, which is simply amazing."

"It's as if the CPU, memory and hard disk are connected together through the motherboard to form a supercomputer."

"Such a multi-enzyme complex is exactly the 'super enzyme' I want!"

After he finished speaking, Wen Renlong pulled him away from the front of the microscope.

Wen Renlong moved his eyes to the camera, stared at the petri dish for a long time, and then sighed.

"This is a miracle of nature, but also a miracle of human creation."

Williams said with a chuckle: "The petri dish only degrades microplastic particles. Although the effect is amazing, more in-depth and detailed experiments are needed to confirm it."

"Next, I will use super enzymes to degrade various untreated plastic products, such as plastic containers, plastic bags, polyester fibers and fabrics, etc., and record the effectiveness and efficiency of super enzymes in degrading different plastic products."

Wen Renlong nodded, turned around and left: "The rest is your business. My work has been completed. Call me if you have any questions."

The next experiment went smoothly. Williams led the team to try more than 60 kinds of plastic products, covering almost all common plastic varieties.

They soaked the plastic in water, and after adding super enzymes, the plastic began to melt visibly.

After 6 hours, holes the size of fingers began to appear in the plastic.

After 12 hours, the plastic had lost its original shape, disintegrating into pieces like a cracked rag.

After 18 hours, most of the plastic products have turned into microplastics invisible to the naked eye, and only some relatively hard parts still maintain the form of flocs.

After 24 hours, under the microscope, the microplastics also disappeared.

Experiments have shown that all plastics are completely degraded within 2-3 days, and the fastest one is degraded within only 4 hours.

This result shocked everyone in the lab.

Even Williams didn't expect the effect to be so stunning.

Everyone cheered for this achievement.

There is no doubt that with super enzymes, companies can achieve recycling at the molecular level, reusing plastics, thereby reducing the adverse impact on the environment.

This state-of-the-art plastic recycling technology will not only revolutionize the plastics manufacturing and waste disposal industries, but also open other industries to endless possibilities.

However, it is far from enough to obtain super enzymes in the laboratory.

In order for billions of tons of plastic waste around the world to disappear as soon as possible, Williams' team has another thing to do.

That is to transform a genetically engineered bacterium and carry out large-scale industrial production of super enzymes.

Highly catalytic protein macromolecules like superenzymes are produced by living cells.

Although chemical synthesis is also possible, the cost is too high and this method is generally not used.

A common method is to produce enzymes through the fermentation of microorganisms.

Inexpensive, high yield, stable and effective.

However, this method also has quite high requirements for enzyme-producing microorganisms, which are difficult to meet at the same time, so they all need to be genetically engineered.

It must be a non-pathogenic bacteria, safe, reliable, non-toxic, short fermentation period, high enzyme production, not easy to mutate or degrade, preferably a strain that can produce extracellular enzymes, which is convenient for separation and purification.

Therefore, the plastic-eating bacteria that Williams extracted from sewage, even after improvement, would hardly meet the requirements.

To mass-produce it industrially, he must use commonly used genetically engineered enzymes.

Only in this way can it be cheap enough, and the cost is low enough, and it can be manufactured on a large scale under existing production conditions.

"Escherichia coli, Bacillus, etc. are commonly used in the industry to manufacture various enzyme preparations, organic acids, amino acids, etc. It can be considered."

"Actinomycetes are very commonly used, but they are mainly used to produce a variety of antibiotics, and are not suitable for enzyme preparations such as super enzymes. Exclude!"

"Yeast is mainly used in the production of enzyme preparations in the fields of food, medicine and feed. Exclude!"

"As for the last mold, they are also widely used in the production of enzyme preparations. Can be candidates."

"Let's start with the most common bacillus genetically engineered enzymes."

Williams groaned, and after much consideration, he focused on E. coli and Bacillus.

Escherichia coli is a common gastrointestinal bacteria that has been in love with humans for many years, but its role is more than that.

It is a model organism favored by scientists. It has repeatedly made outstanding achievements and is known as the "Laboratory Star". It is the protagonist of six Nobel Prize projects and has made outstanding contributions to establishing the scientific status of genetics.

But its biggest saga began with artificial insulin and flourished in the burgeoning technology of genetic engineering.

In the past, humans could only extract insulin from the pancreas of cows and pigs to treat diabetic patients, but the output was very small.

The output of a cow is not enough for a patient's daily use. This primitive method is obviously outdated, so scientists have focused on the little cute E. coli.

Insulin is a protein macromolecular hormone, which is produced from living cells. Why can humans and cattle produce it, but bacteria cannot?
So scientists combined the human insulin gene with the DNA of Escherichia coli, and the human insulin gene directed the Escherichia coli to produce human insulin in the cells of Escherichia coli.

As it multiplies, the insulin gene is passed down from generation to generation, and the E. coli of the offspring can also produce insulin.

Bacteria with new genetic traits given artificially are called genetically engineered bacteria.

People put the genetically engineered bacteria with the human insulin gene into large fermenters, provide it with suitable conditions and nutrients, and carry out artificial cultivation, which can reproduce in large numbers and produce a large amount of human insulin.

In this way, E. coli became a living factory for producing insulin.

Immediately, this little cutie who works hard and is rubbed by others will become a living factory producing super enzymes again.

Williams first extracted the genes related to degrading plastics from the original plastic-eating bacteria.

Then recombine with the DNA of E. coli.

Try to make it produce super enzymes.

However, it quickly failed.

A superenzyme is an assembly of three separate enzymes, which is difficult to make from a single gene.

Even if the three enzymes are produced separately, it is difficult to automatically assemble them together in bacteria.

"Damn it, it all failed."

"Khan, I thought it was too simple."

After many failures, Williams wiped the sweat from his forehead and finally came to his senses.

It is useless to modify super enzymes, and the original plastic-eating bacteria have to be modified.

When the protobacteria can directly produce super enzymes, the relevant genes can be extracted and assembled into E. coli.

So, he called Wen Renlong again to re-do the mathematical modeling based on the big microbial data in the laboratory.

This time, it is to modify the genes of the native bacteria so that they can directly produce super enzymes.

It is obviously much faster to model and predict on the computer than to try them one by one in the laboratory.

After many attempts, the two finally extracted the gene fragment that produces the super enzyme.

The rest of the work went smoothly.

Williams successfully grafted superzyme-related genes into Escherichia coli and obtained a living microbial factory capable of producing superzymes.

"yeah!"

The two clapped their hands excitedly in celebration.

If it weren't for the experimental platform in the middle, they would almost hug each other excitedly.

During this period of work, they simply forgot to sleep and eat. The two of them ate and slept together - the folding bed in the office.

The relationship has developed by leaps and bounds, and a deep fighting friendship has been forged.

Especially after learning that Williams had applied for Chinese citizenship, Wen Renlong looked at him with admiration, and his old prejudice disappeared.

After a brief celebration, the two walked shoulder to shoulder on the way to report to the boss.

Wen Renlong suddenly slapped his forehead, remembered something, and asked, "Dawei, it's the end of December, and New Year's Day is almost here. I remember that the Nobel Prize ceremony was held at the beginning of the month, didn't you go?" ? Did they cancel your peace prize?"

Williams smiled faintly: "I didn't go, I was afraid of being killed by my old club secretly, so I paid and entrusted a friend to accept the award on my behalf. She has no relationship with me, but for the sake of the generous reward, I still went .”

"I have already received the bonus. As for the trophy, she will mail it to me. It is probably on the way."

"This move is good, powerful!" Wen Renlong gave a thumbs up and praised.

"Yeah, if they didn't accept people from Sanqing to accept the award, I actually wanted the overseas branch to send someone there."

Williams sighed: "The bonus has to be divided among three people, which is not much in the first place. Thinking about giving a sum of money to a friend, I feel a little heartbroken."

"Come on, Dawei, with this super enzyme, will you still be short of money in the future?" Wen Renlong laughed loudly.

"How do you say that?"

Wen Renlong explained the dividend policy in detail, and encouraged him: "As long as you continue to develop new products, the microbiology laboratory will become independent sooner or later, and you will be the director at that time. You can get a large amount of dividends every year, and the money is endless. .”

Williams blushed with excitement, rubbed his hands together and said, "Great, a few more super enzymes, I think we will be free soon."

Not long after, the two stood in front of Wei Kang.

Williams handed over the experiment report like a treasure, with a smile on his face: "Boss, the super enzyme has been successfully developed, and the mass production technology has also been settled together, all of which have successfully achieved the goal."

Sitting at his desk, Wei Kang carefully browsed the detailed experimental data, nodding with satisfaction while reading.

"It's great. The two of you joined forces, and it's really powerful. This super enzyme will definitely become a flagship product in the microbiology laboratory."

"However, I have a little supplementary opinion, do you want to think about it?" Wei Kang asked with a smile.

The two looked at each other, with a trace of confusion in their eyes, and their hearts sank at the same time.

Did the boss see something wrong?
While feeling uneasy, Wei Kang murmured, "Have you considered the application of super enzymes in the medical field?"

Williams hesitated for a moment, and said cautiously.

"Although there have been reports that microplastic particles have been detected in human blood, there have been no examples of causing major health hazards to the human body. Therefore, in the field of medicine, super enzymes may not be used yet."

"Haha, you misunderstood." Wei Kang chuckled and explained, "I'm not talking about medicine, but health care products."

"Health care products?" The two looked puzzled.

"Yes, modern people eat all kinds of takeaways, milk tea, and bottled water every day. Over time, some microplastic particles are easy to accumulate in the body. If you want to say it is harmful, it must be harmful to health, but if you say it is a Is it a kind of disease? It's still a little far away, so it won't cause illness immediately."

Wei Kang talked eloquently: "But if things go on like this, the damage to the human body must be gradually deepened, and it may even cause inflammation and deposits in the body organs. So for the sake of health, can you take some preventive health care products? What about taking super enzymes every day to remove microplastic particles from the body and maintain health?"

"And, as you know, there is also a lot of plastic waste in the ocean, which seriously affects the survival of marine life."

"I have just watched a documentary. Many marine organisms have been seriously injured because of eating plastic by mistake. Not only are there a lot of plastic particles in their bodies, but plastics are often stuck in their bodies, which cannot be removed and their lives are dying."

"So I think, to a certain extent, the application of super enzymes will be very extensive. In addition to industrial sites such as waste disposal, it can also be used by animals, including humans, to clean up plastic pollution in the body and maintain good health. .”

"What do you think of this?"

William's eyes lit up immediately: "The boss is worthy of being the boss. His business acumen is much stronger than ours. He will not let go of any opportunity. Even if there is no opportunity, he must create new ones. This point, I must learn from my boss."

Wen Renlong nodded again and again, lost in thought: "That's right, animals and humans also need to take super enzymes to degrade microplastic particles in the body, why didn't I think of it? Health care products, what a golden idea."

"Okay, I will arrange personnel to conduct experiments with the waste treatment plant first to see how it works in the field, and then carry out follow-up development. The business matters will be left to the company."

Wei Kang waved his hand and said, "Dawei, go back and develop a new super enzyme health medicine. Sanqing hasn't launched a health product for a long time, and strive to launch it next year."

"Okay, boss."

The two said in unison.

(End of this chapter)