Esteban Lopez-Tavera

The paper develops a fluorescent probe-based method to screen plastic-degrading enzymes using rhodamine-doped polymer substrates and validates it with PET and polyethylene materials.

The paper discovers and characterizes a new family of bacterial heme-thiolate peroxygenases, showing structural and functional similarities to eukaryotic UPOs.

The paper identifies a copper-binding CBM2 module that regulates LPMO activity by scavenging free copper and interacting with the LPMO's catalytic site, preventing oxidative damage.

This study attempts to replicate two recent claims of enzymatic degradation of polyethylene and poly(vinyl chloride) but finds no activity under various conditions, suggesting previous results may have been misinterpreted.