Plastic Meets Biology

02 Science

Our lead program targets PET microplastics with engineered enzymes designed for human physiology, with an initial oncology focus on cancer progression and metastasis-relevant biology.

Microplastics like PET are increasingly understood as bioactive particles, not inert contaminants. Once present in blood and tissues, micro- and nanoplastics may interact with cells, immune pathways, and tissue environments in ways relevant to inflammation, oxidative stress, cellular migration, immune dysfunction, and tumor progression. Human causation remains unproven, but the biology is now compelling enough to test whether removing microplastic burden can change disease-relevant signals.

Elora is developing systemically delivered enzyme therapeutics designed to degrade internal PET microplastics in vivo. Our PETase/MHETase-based approach is intended to break PET into smaller molecules, including terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol, that can be measured and cleared through natural pathways.

Our near-term work is focused on validating enzyme activity in human-relevant biological conditions, including serum stability, PET degradation, degradation-product measurement, particle characterization, cytotoxicity, and early cancer-relevant readouts. For the oncology pivot, we are prioritizing colorectal cancer models that can test whether PET degradation affects migration, inflammation, immune signaling, and other progression-relevant biology.

The first goal is not to claim that microplastics cause cancer. The goal is to generate rigorous data on whether PET microplastic removal can reduce a targetable burden implicated in cancer progression and metastasis.

Elora’s long-term vision is to build a new therapeutic category: engineered enzyme medicines for microplastic-associated disease.