March 5, 2025
Keio University
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
A research team consisting of Yurika Hamano (a fourth-year student in the Department of Biosciences and Informatics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University), Ying Huang (a researcher at the Keio Leading-edge Laboratory of Science and Technology (KLL)), Kenji Miyamoto (a professor at the university's Faculty of Science and Technology), and Yoshiyuki Kamo, Yu Izutani, and Chiharu Mitani from the Advanced Technology R&D Center at Mitsubishi Electric Corporation has successfully discovered microbes that degrade polyurethane.
This finding is an important step toward enabling the microbial degradation of PU, which has traditionally been difficult to recycle and has been disposed of through landfill or incineration.
These findings will be presented at the meeting of the Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry on March 8, 2025.
Please see below for the full press release.