A team of scientists from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS), led by researcher Víctor Guallar, has won the Zendal Award for the best sustainability initiative for the development of an enzyme capable of degrading PET micro- and nanoparticles.
The prize was received in Vigo on Thursday by BSC researcher Ana Robles, first author of the study, carried out in collaboration with research groups from the Institute of Catalysis and Petrochemistry of the CSIC (ICP-CSIC) and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), and published in the journal Nature Catalysis.
The Zendal Prize jury described the work as "an innovative solution in the search for tools to combat the threat posed by micro- and nanoplastics" and stressed that the results obtained "indicate that the newly developed protein has an efficiency of degradation of PET micro- and nanoplastics between 5 and 10 times higher than those currently available on the market".
The Zendal Awards, organised by the biotechnology group Zendal, are open to both public and private institutions and teams and aim to "make visible, promote and recognise" new research projects in the field of human and animal health.