About This Project

We propose a self-sustaining microbial system for scalable CO₂ sequestration and biopolymer synthesis using horizontal gene transfer (HGT) to enhance native marine consortia. This one-year proof-of-concept study will establish and optimize a native microbial community where HGT enables cyanobacteria to fix CO₂ into lactic acid, which marine heterotrophs then convert into bioplastics. This work lays the foundation for ocean-based carbon capture and biomanufacturing.

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Motivating Factor

Rising atmospheric CO₂ levels pose a severe threat to global climate stability, with long-term consequences for biodiversity, food security, and human. While the ocean serves as Earth’s largest carbon sink, absorbing ~30% of anthropogenic CO₂, its natural biological processes are inefficient at converting this captured carbon into stable, long-term storage. At the same time, existing CO₂ mitigation strategies such as direct air capture and land-based microbial biomanufacturing face high energy costs, scalability, and infrastructure issues, limiting their practicality for global deployment. A scalable, biologically driven CO₂ capture system harnesses oceanic microbial processes could provide a transformative way for permanent carbon sequestration while producing valuable bioproducts like biopolymers. These biopolymers are generally biodegradable, reducing environmental waste and dependence on petroleum-based plastics, thereby promoting a more circular economy.

Specific Bottleneck

• Engineered microbes are poorly adapted to native environments, gradually losing function due to mutations, competition, and metabolic burden.

• While native oceanic microbes are inherently stable in marine environments, they exhibit poor CO₂ diffusion rates, energy losses, and metabolic trade-offs, limiting carbon capture and product yields.

• Most engineered microbial systems are optimized for lab conditions but fail to maintain productivity under relevant and dynamic environments

• Bioreactor-based microbial carbon capture systems demand extensive infrastructure, high energy inputs, active maintenance, and costly bioprocessing steps.

There is a need to move beyond static, engineered systems toward adaptive, self-sustaining microbial communities in natural environments.

Actionable Goals

A robust proof-of-concept framework is needed to demonstrate microbially driven, large-scale ocean-based CO₂ capture and conversion:

• Establish an adaptive microbial platform that maintains genetic stability and long-term function in dynamic environments.

• Adapt native marine microbial species for improved CO₂ capture and conversion into usable bioproducts, such as biopolymer.

• Develop strategies to improve resilience of engineered microbial communities to environmental fluctuations.

These milestones would lay the foundation for a biologically driven, self-sustaining carbon capture system capable of operating effectively in marine environments, with potential applications in biomanufacturing and sustainable materials production.