Titelbild: Conversion of Polyethylenes into Fungal Secondary Metabolites (Angew. Chem. 4/2023)

A novel, two-step chemical-biological approach converts post-consumer polyethylenes into structurally diverse and pharmacologically active fungal natural products, as reported by Travis J. Williams, Clay C. C. Wang et al. in their Research Article (e202214609). Polyethylenes are first cleaved into carboxylic diacids using catalytic oxidation. Genetically engineered strains of fungi then rapidly convert these diacids into natural product pharmaceutical platforms implicated in the treatment of cancer, neurodegenerative disease, and bacterial infections. A novel, two-step chemical-biological approach converts post-consumer polyethylenes into structurally diverse and pharmacologically active fungal natural products, as reported by Travis J. Williams, Clay C. C. Wang et al. in their Research Article (e202214609). Polyethylenes are first cleaved into carboxylic diacids using catalytic oxidation. Genetically engineered strains of fungi then rapidly convert these diacids into natural product pharmaceutical platforms implicated in the treatment of cancer, neurodegenerative disease, and bacterial infections. Lithium Ion Batteries DNA Nanotechnology Perovskites