Enzymes

00:00:03: Substance.

00:00:04: Stories about the stuff that

00:00:06: shapes our world.

00:00:08: I think it's common.

00:00:09: when you look to any of these challenges we face in society, biology just does a better than what we do almost always.

00:00:16: Substance You might not realize this but many chemical innovations we depend on today weren't invented by scientists or engineers.

00:00:36: they were discovered sometimes improved upon But no person invented them.

00:00:42: Nature did.

00:00:43: Or it's actually probably more accurate to say that they weren't invented at all, They evolved thanks to the unique chemistry we enjoy here on planet Earth and The four or so billion years That chemistry has had to slosh around On surface.

00:01:03: For example if you filled up your gas tank with fuel that was derived from corn The stuff that turned the corn into fuel was developed, at least in part by biology.

00:01:15: Beer brewing personal care household goods all of these industries depend on one particular evolutionary invention – the molecular machines to make living chemistry work.

00:01:29: enzymes.

00:01:31: I'm Joe Hansen and this is Substance A podcast about the discoveries and innovations in chemistry, helping us build a sustainable society for the future.

00:01:45: In short we tell stories of stuff that shapes our world!

00:01:50: We've just come back from a summer break this month talking to Oliver Spungenberg on how cutting-edge biotechnology is fueling improvements into enzymes used over decades by the detergent industry and how they're helping save consumers energy every time they do laundry by letting us wash at lower temperatures, reducing the energy needed for one of our most common household routines.

00:02:18: Then Jessica Swanson from The University Of Utah will tell about How New Science Into The Fundamentals Of Enzyme Biology May One Day Help Us Solve One Of The Biggest Causes Of Climate Change And that's one only getting worse as the world warms.

00:02:37: So for starters, what is an enzyme anyway?

00:02:41: Enzymes are a kind of protein – those long strings of amino acids do work keeping living things alive.

00:02:50: An enzyme is a biological catalyst which means it's a molecule that accelerates chemical reactions and stays as such, is not used in the process.

00:03:00: You have enzymes in nature right?

00:03:02: It's a natural chemistry.

00:03:04: every organism needs enzymes to survive.

00:03:07: Without the work that enzymes do we wouldn't be able to breathe or digest food Or

00:03:12: reproduce.

00:03:13: We would even be able sleep.

00:03:16: That because an enzyme job Is make complex chemistry of life possible without the enormous input of energy that many non-biological chemical reactions require.

00:03:28: Amazingly, the energy savings we get from enzymes can be unlocked even when enzymes aren't inside living organisms!

00:03:37: One place where you see this up close and personal is at home in one our most intimate but universal aggravating but necessary…and also one of our most energy intensive undertakings doing the laundry.

00:03:51: So, today's detergent formulations would not perform on certain tough stains like for example grass stain or bloodstain or

00:04:02: spaghetti

00:04:03: sauce pizza fat.

00:04:06: so enzymes are really key target ingredients to remove those stains.

00:04:10: without enzymes it will not function.

00:04:14: my name is Oliver Spangenberg and I'm the head of global enzyme development for home care within BSF, I think what we are really doing is keeping the family happy by developing technology that's needed for detergents.

00:04:28: And working with nature and biology makes it even more

00:04:31: attractive.".

00:04:32: In addition to the fact modern laundry detergence wouldn't work without them enzymes also make the whole process of doing laundry more sustainable.

00:04:42: Enzymes and laundry detergent are able to do their work at lower temperatures, so we don't need to use energy to produce as much hot water.

00:04:51: And this has potentially huge impact!

00:04:55: We're talking about an average of three hundred or so loads of laundry that the American family does each year with an energy consumption up to nine-hundred ten kilowatt hours electricity per year.

00:05:08: in addition washing it lowered temperatures is Better for our clothes.

00:05:12: It can help them last longer because it's gentler on the fabrics and fibers.

00:05:17: Enzymes allow for cleaner clothes with less damage after every wash.

00:05:22: You need tiny amounts to achieve a lot, right?

00:05:25: That is one of the big I would call dogmas.

00:05:27: when using enzymes.

00:05:28: you don't need a lot but they benefit.

00:05:31: your get is great And that is the biggest.

00:05:33: actually drive off enzymes in the industry.

00:05:36: Reduce temperature in the washing for the lifecycle of your product, the life cycle assessment.

00:05:44: Less energy is used you can actually shorten the wash cycles.

00:05:48: that's a benefit.

00:05:49: so you can turn machines that have been used or programs even still twenty years ago fifteen years ago where you needed two hours.

00:05:58: these days You can move to thirty minutes or even below.

00:06:01: So newer detergents are claiming say allow performance.

00:06:06: Even similar tour longer wash cycle Fifteen minutes, right?

00:06:11: There's one customer who is actually putting those claims in the market.

00:06:15: What is really amazing and it can only be done with enzymes.

00:06:19: Oliver has been studying how to understand And design new enzymes since his university days His love for science and biology specifically.

00:06:29: Well he seemed to be born with that.

00:06:31: So there was not a moment when I said okay Let's decide to move into biology.

00:06:34: It was really potentially late In my cradle.

00:06:38: My father loved nature.

00:06:39: We spent much time outside hiking, discovering nature.

00:06:43: And somehow for me there was no doubt it was in my genes already.

00:06:47: The enzyme is really something that you take from Nature and you apply to the industry.

00:06:51: So for me this interface of Nature & Industry right?

00:06:55: It's a key driver and applying using natural polymers In the industrial application...it makes it really allows us combine both sides And that is something I really find exciting.

00:07:09: and have a passion for enzymes.

00:07:10: So, i've been working on an enzyme snow for more than twenty-five years... ...and it's really something I would not

00:07:16: miss.".

00:07:17: Oliver started his doctoral work at the time when we were just beginning to unravel the mysteries of the genome in DNA.

00:07:25: In the times since The possibilities.

00:07:27: what can do with biotechnology has changed dramatically But doesn't mean that use of enzymes isn't necessarily new.

00:07:36: We've actually used them for decades, centuries even millennia to make valuable products and transform industries.

00:07:45: Even if we hadn't yet figured out what enzymes were or that these little molecular machines were responsible

00:07:57: is several thousand years old, right?

00:07:59: I mean already in prurary.

00:08:01: For example when you do a beer purory or wine making enzymes play an important role for producing those products.

00:08:09: so it's the natural process known already four years.

00:08:12: The first application industry and detergents was nineteen thirteen.

00:08:15: That's Right!

00:08:16: Enzymes have been used in detergence for more than a century.

00:08:20: even if we get our hands on enzymes today has changed considerably from how he use to get them.

00:08:27: For that first industrial use in detergents, scientists realized collecting biology's little cleaning machines required a pretty gruesome manufacturing process.

00:08:38: First application and I will talk here about Industrial Application was the use of detergence in nineteen thirteen by Otto Röhm.

00:08:48: he used the extract from the pork pancreas to apply it on textile, remove blood stains.

00:08:56: You really used part of the organ as I have to say... To mix with salt and also liquids in order use for application in cleaning this blood stain.

00:09:12: It was a natural product that has been actually used until the sixties.

00:09:18: The standard process is to use enzymes from animals.

00:09:22: Thankfully, in the nineteen sixties scientists figured out how to use microorganisms like bacteria to produce enzymes so that they no longer had to rely on those rather messy techniques from the past.

00:09:35: The discovery of DNA and the decoding of the DNA sequences that carry the instructions for how to build an enzyme?

00:09:43: That allowed scientists to add that sequence into a micro organism miniature enzyme factory.

00:09:53: That eventually led to an industrial process to produce pure enzyme that could be used like, well any other detergent ingredient though of course that took decades to perfect.

00:10:05: It was a research field for long time and not really commercially successful I would call it.

00:10:11: you had Of course some successes however great commercial breakthrough.

00:10:21: In the nineties this changed, it was really an exciting position.

00:10:25: I had actually working on my PhD and also getting attracted by the activities that were happening in the industrial segment.

00:10:32: My PhD work was enzyme engineering but for a more pharmaceutical approach And going into industry producing using enzymes from nature That we're Actually produced on an economic scale.

00:10:48: Today, techniques to extract enzymes and engineer them have been fine-tuned.

00:10:56: We've discovered enzymes from all kinds of organisms living in a variety of environments that can tackle an entire range of industrial tasks!

00:11:16: We've even developed techniques to supercharge those enzymes, To make them do the tasks that they evolved-to-do Even more efficiently or in more extreme conditions.

00:11:27: That's where Oliver's work comes in.

00:11:29: What we're doing is on one side developing enzymes So my team actually testing The enzymes and target applications And also overseeing managing the enzyme development process.

00:11:45: who are really identifying the enzyme in nature, who were developing new variants.

00:11:50: Who are developing this?

00:11:52: trained production organisms for the production of the enzyme?

00:11:56: So what we're doing as well is looking into the context of detergent components.

00:12:02: right how do the enzymes interact with other detergent chemistry and that's one key drivers makes me also very exciting about my work.

00:12:12: Alongside the enzymes in a bottle of laundry detergent are soaps and synthetic polymers that help keep the stains In-the-wash water after the enzyme for move them.

00:12:24: Oliver's team works to make sure that this ingredient blend works together To provide the best possible performance

00:12:31: say understanding enzymes in the context of chemistry Of in the detergent formulation because we can identify synergies between enzymes end polymers, enzymes and surfactant, enzymes.

00:12:43: And builders...and we are able to really get the best out of the composition or combination of both chemistry and

00:12:52: enzymes.".

00:12:53: Oliver's group is working on making the enzymes they study even more efficient than those currently available — all in service for sustainability!

00:13:04: Specifically…they're also working with detergents operating at peak performance colder temperatures and with even shorter wash cycles.

00:13:13: They're tackling stubborn stains, smells that often cause people to toss.

00:13:19: clothes in the trash might otherwise still be wearable.

00:13:24: Our clothes are a huge part of household carbon emissions.

00:13:30: Simply lowering energy it takes do laundry can help all us cut back the amount we pump into the atmosphere.

00:13:38: We do need to innovate further.

00:13:39: I mean, because simply there is no end in terms of what you can achieve with enzymes since the future and our world is changing right?

00:13:47: we all want to move towards more sustainability into a healthy environment And here... You NEED TO come up with new enzymes New enzymes that really function even better than they are today.

00:14:03: The need to INNOVATE with enzymes means basic research into enzyme biology is still an incredibly important enterprise, especially when it comes to solving the world's biggest problems.

00:14:17: I think that first thing anyone would want to know was there are so many ways you can contribute to solutions from whatever your domain or expertise and area where work in.

00:14:30: There are ways to contribute including climate solution.

00:14:35: I'm Jessica Swanson.

00:14:37: I am a professor of chemistry, although technically i do computational biophysics and in the department chemistry at The University of Utah.

00:14:46: if computational bio physics sounds to you like something out of science fiction You're not alone.

00:14:53: it's funny because I'm often asked what we do, and honestly it's a combination of all the scientists.

00:14:59: It is like you take physics and biology and chemistry in computation and meld them together And this is effectively what we did.

00:15:07: We have a team of graduate students and postdocs myself as the professor and we use computers tools to look at these really interesting biological processes understand how they happen.

00:15:21: And the way we do that effectively is by making movies of these processes and watching in real time kind of, How These Processes Unfold.

00:15:31: Over the past century or so physicists have figured out mind-bogglingly complicated.

00:15:50: Even though the physical principles are the same as the rest of the universe, that number of atoms and complex interactions involved makes these problems really challenging.

00:16:02: As computers have become more powerful And scientists all stripes integrated them into their research It's became possible to calculate and predict how evermore complex systems behave including biological systems, and that's exactly what Jessica's research group does.

00:16:22: At the end of day when we say we use these simulations or make movies at these molecules it is understanding physical interactions to govern a molecule And there isn't anything unique about biology that enables this process.

00:16:39: It's just same physics that governs non-biological matter specific types of motions in these biological systems.

00:16:48: And so the simulations really give us a powerful tool for using how we can describe physics, physical interactions of matter to biological

00:16:56: systems.".

00:16:57: Even though Jessica studies biology she's not working to develop new medicines or trying to understand an ecosystem.

00:17:06: instead she is trying to harness.

00:17:11: Methane is one of the primary greenhouse gases we need to get rid off in a fight against climate change.

00:17:20: Like Oliver, she thinks her love for science might just lie on her DNA.

00:17:26: So from very young age and I'm not sure why this was but always knew that wanted contribute some way solutions particularly to climate solution.

00:17:35: actually daughter scientist born Los Alamos New Mexico And I don't know if you've seen the movie Oppenheimer, but that's where The First Atomic Bomb was built.

00:17:46: They brought in the best scientists so they could gather together into one small town and Los Alamos then burgeoned over time this national lab.

00:17:55: So my father was a tremendous analytical physical inorganic chemist at the lab.

00:18:01: It is just in my genetics to be curious about scientific topics.

00:18:08: My father was wonderful and always encouraging us to follow our curiosity.

00:18:12: And so as I was training in the sciences, um...I always just found biological systems to be the most fascinating.

00:18:20: There's such phenomenal beauty and complexity that you see In these biological systems.

00:18:27: At the same time we can understand them after tremendous potential for solving societal challenges.

00:18:34: Even though Jessica found biology fascinating, she still wanted to use her skills to work on fighting climate change.

00:18:43: That created a practical challenge since most of the research funding for people who want study biology at fundamental level in United States tends be granted to people that study human health not Climate Change.

00:18:57: As I was going through school it kind following that curiosity and my talents in finding an area where I felt like i could really contribute.

00:19:06: And then a very significant challenge for me was figuring out how do I bridge those skills with actually contributing?

00:19:15: That continued to be a challenge up to even, you know five years ago!

00:19:19: It was two years into kind of the five-year process of getting tenure... ...and I decided that I didn't care if maybe my colleagues thought it was best.

00:19:29: You know, what I cared about was contributing to what i think is the most important challenges that we face.

00:19:34: And so I was just dead set on finding a way To use the skills that we have to apply them too to climate challenges.

00:19:41: and um...I Was very lucky to be introduced to a number of people in The methane mitigation world and it just snowballed from there.

00:19:51: Substance Methane Is not your run-of-the mill greenhouse gas okay?

00:19:57: It's incredibly potent.

00:20:00: It has about eighty times the warming potential of carbon dioxide over a twenty-year time period.

00:20:06: Crucially, the release of methane itself is considered what's called a climate tipping point meaning that if we reach certain threshold then it leads to this feedback loop in which methane warms the climate and releases more methane which warms even more the planet.

00:20:30: maybe both more intimidating and inspirational aspects of it is that methane is one of those tipping points.

00:20:36: So as temperatures warm, we are seeing increased emissions from the natural sources in methane like wetlands melting tundra, permafrost, melting clathrates right?

00:20:47: And so It makes it both something that can have an impact, and so its exciting to do it.

00:20:55: And we better do something about because the natural tendency is only increase the amount of methane up

00:21:01: there.".

00:21:02: Jessica says despite the importance of controlling methane much focus on controlling greenhouse gas emissions has for good reason been turned towards CO² even though controlling methane could have a huge immediate impact today.

00:21:18: I think the focus for so long has been on CO₂ and we can't lose focus on CO², We still need to focus everything we can both first reducing emissions then two figuring out how actually get some of it outta atmosphere.

00:21:32: that is one hundred percent important.

00:21:34: however You know, there's many different trajectories that we have to twenty one hundred.

00:21:39: Methane is a way that we can slow down the warming in the near term and still have you know impact in the long-term

00:21:47: Luckily even though methane Is more potent than CO two.

00:21:51: it also doesn't hang around In the atmosphere for centuries like carbon dioxide does.

00:21:57: After just a few decades, any methane in the atmosphere eventually reacts with other stuff that's floating around up there.

00:22:05: That Jessica says is why its near-term impact is so powerful

00:22:10: For every molecule that lets you to it goes out.

00:22:14: It's gonna be up there for hundreds of years.

00:22:16: versus Molecule of Methane.

00:22:17: that molecular methane is going to warm a lot more But it won't last as long And so effectively.

00:22:23: if we were able to, you know eliminate our methane emissions today.

00:22:27: We would see a cooling effect from that because it is such a potent warmer and So that's the hope that You know?

00:22:34: We can actually limit the emissions in the near term and have a cooling effects offset The warming that we've already baked-in with this CO two.

00:22:43: the bottom line Is we need to get rid of methane and the faster the better.

00:22:49: Jessica says that biology holds the key to doing just that.

00:22:54: Her research group studies a class of bacteria that consume methane, the methanotrophs.

00:23:01: along with her collaborators she's trying to figure out how to deploy those bacteria on a massive scale

00:23:08: In the field of climate.

00:23:09: it is hard find things are going really make a dent in the challenge we're facing and this can make interacted with the methane mitigation field and with experts, gone through numbers.

00:23:24: And seeing one this is technically possible.

00:23:28: two-this can be economically driven so it will scale to all these distributed sources.

00:23:33: three once its scales it'll have an influence.

00:23:37: those are things that give me up because they're potentially going make a difference.

00:23:43: right now.

00:23:43: I see here's potential solution.

00:23:46: It's our job right?

00:23:49: To get it to the point that a can take off and can benefit society.

00:23:55: The fact is, so far not much has made a dent in methane emissions.

00:24:00: they're still just going up-and-up racing toward that tipping point we mentioned earlier And so far no one's figured out how deal with it.

00:24:10: There are technological solutions but all cost a ton of money You know, very expensive solutions with the fact that these sources which is the mass majority of the methane we're putting out are very distributed.

00:24:25: They're landfill vents they're oil wells that are spread all over the place there agricultural farms so very dispersed distributed sources.

00:24:35: at the end of day it's a valuable molecule its natural gas right?

00:24:38: So if you can capture and actually use it It Can create a valuable product.

00:24:44: But the only way you're going to do that at those really dilute concentrations is with a biological solution.

00:24:50: In some cases, when methane leaks from all of those distributed sources Jessica mentioned we limit its emissions by setting it on fire which then just turns into CO₂.

00:25:03: That isn't great!

00:25:04: If you look at the overall oxidation in methane... From methane-to-methanol or methane-To-CO₂ It's gonna give off a lot energy and means once this happens However, it has to get over what's called an energy barrier for that process to happen.

00:25:18: So natural gas if I have enough methane molecules around and i provide a spark Enough to catalyze one of them getting over that activation Energy once It gets over it kicks off energy And it feeds that energy into the guy next.

00:25:31: Toit right?

00:25:32: And so If you Have enough Of Them Around That Spark Translates Into A Plane And You Just Constantly Consuming All The Methane Molecules Around.

00:25:41: but if you go too dilute Right.

00:25:43: Now the energy that's given off by one methane module being converted is not going to reach another one because it's too far away, right?

00:25:52: So not only isn't less than ideal to deal with methane emissions just turning them into more CO₂ emissions a lot of time.

00:26:00: its' not even possible do that?

00:26:03: The gas you're lighting on fire has contain at least ten percent methane and distributed energy sources Jessica mentioned like Farms and landfills, not to mention natural sources of methane like melting permafrost.

00:26:17: Well they produce far less methane than ten percent even though when you add them all together They do release the majority of the methane.

00:26:27: that's warming the planet.

00:26:29: Luckily setting methane on fire isn't The only way to surpass its formidable energy barrier.

00:26:36: in fact That is exactly where enzymes excel.

00:26:40: It's really about coordination, right?

00:26:42: So the protein environment kind of enables holding the reactant methane in this case interacting with oxygen in the right place.

00:26:50: And it also does a really good job moving kind balancing charges.

00:26:55: so moving protons positive charges and electrons negative charges kinda been concerted way that makes overall process doable at room temperature.

00:27:06: need that huge, needs to get over the huge activation barrier because it's bringing the activation barrier down making it easier by bringing all the right kind of players to the right place at the right time.

00:27:18: Amazingly the bacteria that use those enzymes not only eat methane they can even suck it out of the environment when its very low concentrations just a few parts per million or PPM.

00:27:32: They're like these phenomenal little factories, they can take methane at this very dilute concentrations and they themselves turn it into valuable things.

00:27:42: Whether its the biomass of a cell itself which could be used as single-cell protein or produce all those challenging molecules like carotenoids in pharmaceuticals.

00:27:53: last year There was a paper that came out, that demonstrated in the strain we work with.

00:27:57: they were able to engineer it and produce large quantity of taxidine which is precursor for Taxol.

00:28:04: Which I don't know how many billion dollar per year market for cancer therapy.

00:28:09: The first thing those bacteria do when get hold of methane Is convert it into methanol.

00:28:15: The enzymes at Jessica studies?

00:28:16: They exactly like that!

00:28:18: There's actually two enzymes in nature That only do this.

00:28:21: Which pretty amazing right.

00:28:22: One of them is the soluble version, soluble methanin monooxygenase.

00:28:28: And then one that we study is membrane bound.

00:28:30: it's called particulate methane monooxygenase and if you look at how these bacteria choose between the two enzymes The particular version is a copper dependent and If they can get copper at all They'll use the copper-dependent enzyme.

00:28:44: It's also more effective but kind of behind on to the methane were effectively and process it more effectively.

00:28:52: The amazing thing about either this enzyme or these bacteria is they will consume and convert down to the atmospheric concentrations.

00:29:00: That's two PPM, so they can do it!

00:29:04: The challenge that we face... ...is how do we harvest them?

00:29:08: How do we use them?

00:29:09: And-and that's all about efficiency.

00:29:11: If we could get the methane to them.. ..and allow them to convert into these valuable molecules efficiently enough then we would have economically driven solutions that work on all the distributed sources.

00:29:25: That's really key, it has to be economically-driven.

00:29:28: Jessica says The reality is in a world where no one will invest in methane mitigation if they can't expect a return of investment.

00:29:41: as she believes the key for fast and widespread adoption is making sure numbers play

00:29:47: out.

00:29:49: However, is a challenge when you're working with biology?

00:29:52: Biological systems evolve to survive.

00:29:55: They don't evolve for optimal throughput and so we are thinking all the way from reactor design.

00:30:02: how do we use physics to get the methane in there as efficiently as possible?

00:30:07: then once it's in?

00:30:19: So the two big goals we have, one of them is figuring out how to retain activity at PMMO outside of host systems.

00:30:26: Because if we can stabilize it and retain activity then its this phenomenal catalyst that we could use in technological solutions where were converting methane to methanol at room temperature.

00:30:38: That would be absolutely breakthrough Methanol as a storeable liquid valuable resource And so that would be tremendous.

00:30:48: The second goal is absolutely to figure out how can we enable these bacteria themselves, To Be More Efficient?

00:30:54: and That comes down more than just the one enzyme that comes down to optimizing the entire process of transferring the methane.

00:31:03: It's called mass transfer to the enzyme.

00:31:07: Jessica isn't going at this alone.

00:31:09: She's working with other scientists who are experts on methanotrophs to put their diverse expertise

00:31:42: deep well-acknowledged when it comes to these bacteria.

00:31:45: While the experimentalists focus on learning everything they can from the bacteria and enzymes, Jessica is focused on asking them more fundamental physical questions that experiments alone just cannot answer.

00:32:00: That's the biggest advantage of her molecular movies.

00:32:04: The simulations are tremendous because we give us again molecular level movie window into the enzyme and how it interacts with up-and-downstream enzyme partners.

00:32:15: So far we've been able to generate these simulations that show us how the methane is delivered, shows really interesting motions going on at the catalytic active site And we're moving towards looking at how the electron transfer and the proton delivery, both of they have been.

00:32:33: one because we don't know yet.

00:32:35: Two – How are they influenced by these additional driving forces that are in the real system?

00:32:41: As Jessica mentioned earlier.

00:32:45: Well, it sits in a membrane which is essentially along film inside the bacteria that creates little balloon-like compartments inside the bacterial cells.

00:32:58: But the membrane isn't just there to provide home for PMMO though….

00:33:02: The energy stored across this membrane might be key.

00:33:06: how the enzyme works!

00:33:10: We know if we look at other bioenergetic complexes, things like the strength of the voltage can influence electron transfer.

00:33:18: Can stall it or allow to proceed?

00:33:21: Whether that's playing into particulate methane monoxygenase mechanism directly Or just pushing and nudging one way or another If its really playing a direct role in up-and down stream catalytic processes Those are some main questions.

00:33:39: If the membrane plays a direct role in how the enzyme works, figuring out how to use it without using bacteria could pose a major challenge.

00:33:50: That's why Jessica and her collaborators are focused on understanding both HOW the enzyme alone can play a role in methane mitigation AND on how bioreactors that depend upon the whole BACTERIA could be deployed quickly.

00:34:05: I think

00:34:09: both technological solutions are on the horizon.

00:34:12: I would say within the next ten years, I absolutely expect to see solutions that are deploying the enzyme and I expect to seeing solutions that're deploying the bacteria.

00:34:22: My focus has always been ultimately on impact because i have kids so they worry about their future.

00:34:27: So with the enzyme itself it's really challenging target in near term at least low concentrations whereas the bacteria they already consume down to these crazy low concentrations.

00:34:40: So the near-term deployment that goes after the dilute distributed sources, I think the bacterial solutions are going to come on more quickly and that's absolutely what we're trying to make happen.

00:34:53: so We are in the process of Trying to get the initial data to spin off a startup That would deploy field tests on methanotropic bioreactors And there are quite a number The groups out there that are also trying to use methanaships in one way, shape or form.

00:35:12: We have a very targeted program that has thought about all aspects of that efficiency and we think we have a really strong plan for going after that.

00:35:20: it's just right now were on the challenge.

00:35:22: how do you get these tremendous ideas?

00:35:24: That will work actually into the marketplace.

00:35:27: they talk this valley death between being and academic research, in getting you into the marketplace.

00:35:34: And it's tricky to get over that hump.

00:35:38: but we have made a lot of progress.

00:35:40: We've got some very promising data so far.

00:35:43: So were hopeful.

00:35:44: they're on their way

00:35:47: In two thousand four Two scientists who fueled human genome project The late Craig Venter Projects leader Who died this year in April Daniel Cohen.

00:35:58: They make bold claim.

00:36:00: They declared that the twenty-first century would be the century of computers and biology.

00:36:08: We're just a quarter of way into that century, And it's clear they were right.

00:36:14: Discoveries in innovations in basic biology research are already changing rules about what we can achieve against climate change and countless other problems.

00:36:27: Enzymes at the center And over the last seventy-five years, we've figured out how to harness their chemistry across a huge range of industries.

00:36:38: But there is still so much to discover about what we can achieve with them.

00:36:43: These are really exciting areas that need people to engage in them whether it's you know future scientists or philanthropists, people who are in business that want to support it.

00:36:55: And I think the scientist pushing it and a scientific community behind is really well-intentioned.

00:37:01: if they're curious about what they should reach out for as an ask questions you know?

00:37:07: Most of these communities are very collectively driven solutions to society right so their not going get cold shoulders when they talk.

00:37:21: Next up on Substance, we're bringing you an illuminating episode.

00:37:26: Our subject is light!

00:37:28: Join us for our next episode to tackle that and more.

00:37:32: This has been Substance Stories about the Stuff That Shapes Our World.

00:37:39: Substance is a podcast by BASF produced by Territory Agency in collaboration with Wakeword & Me Joe Hansen Research and scripting Daniel Sedbrook, Claudia Doyle, Hardy Rode and Joe Hansen.