Irish Polymers and Materials Conference 2020: Polymers and the Environment

Speakers

Toxicity in industrial biotechnology – knowing the enemy within - Dr Joseph P Webb

University of Sheffield - Thursday 18 June - 10:00 (BST)

The production of commodity chemicals is often highly polluting, requires precious metal catalysts, toxic reagents or solvents, extreme conditions and generates large volumes of waste by-products. Genetically engineered microorganisms have been developed to produce numerous chemicals from renewable carbon sources, which can avoid many of these issues. However, widespread application has been limited by the lack of enzymes or metabolic pathways to produce the target product, low titres of product, low yield of product and/or product toxicity. Two methods to overcome product toxicity will be discussed. The first involves producing citramalate, a non-toxic precursor for methyl methacrylate, at high titre in E. coli. The second involves improving styrene production in E. coli using in-depth ‘omics’ studies to develop a better understanding of why styrene is toxic and guide metabolic engineering efforts to improve the process.

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Programme

Booking Process/Deadlines

Booking terms and conditions

CPD Info

SCI Members attending this meeting are able to claim CPD points.

Call for papers

This is the 6th Polymer event organised jointly by the SCI All-Ireland and Materials Chemistry Groups. The 2020 event will focus on the environmental issues faced by the polymer industries:

• Microplastics
• Toxicity and Biodegradation
• Polymers from Renewable Resources
• Recycling of Polymers
• Green Chemistry applied to Polymer Synthesis

There are two options:
• Oral paper (30 - 45 minutes) Deadline Friday 12 June 2020
• Poster – Deadline Friday 17 July 2020

An abstract of maximum one A4 page or 300 words indicating title, authors and preference for presentation option (Oral with 30 or 45 minute time preference or Poster) should be sent to conferences@soci.org with the subject line “IPMC - abstract submission” Oral presentation slots are inevitably limited and will be allocated to achieve a balanced programme. An abstract template can be downloaded here.

Organising Committee

• Gordon Armstrong, University of Limerick
• David Birkett, Henkel Adhesive Technologies
• Jim Wickson, Croda

Sponsorship

For further information and prices, please email conferences@soci.org.

Attendees

This event will be of interest to anyone working in in polymer chemistry or environmental chemistry.

Conference Team

Tel: +44 (0)20 7598 1561
Email: conferences@soci.org