Read the full article by Tom Dinki (University at Buffalo)
“In the quest to take the ‘forever’ out of ‘forever chemicals,’ bacteria might be our ally.
Most remediation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) involves adsorbing and trapping them, but certain microbes can actually break apart the strong chemical bonds that allow these chemicals to persist for so long in the environment.
Now, a University at Buffalo-led team has identified a strain of bacteria that can break down and transform at least three types of PFAS, and, perhaps even more crucially, some of the toxic byproducts of the bond-breaking process.” …