
3rd Open Plastic Symposium
April 23 - 25, 2025 - Donald Gordon Conference Center, Kingston, ON, Canada

Day 1
April 23, 2025
10:00 - 12:00
Open Plastic Consortium Members
Annual General Meeting
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Conference Room - A
12:00 - 13:30
Open Plastic Consortium Members
Working Lunch
13:30 - 14:00
All Participants
Networking & Free Time
14:00 - 17:00
All Participants
First Session (Session Chair - Graeme Howe)
Conference Room - A
14:00 - 14:30
Peter Edwards
Welcome and Introduction
Peter Edwards (Introduction by David Zechel)
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Conference Room - A
14:30 - 15:00
George diCenzo, Queen's University
Open Plastic Progress Overview
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Conference Room - A
15:00 - 15:30
Diane Orihel, Queen's University
The pELAstic Project: Mesocosm- and Whole-Lake Microplastic Experiments
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Conference Room - A
15:30 - 16:00
Stephen Romano, City of Cornwall
Plastics Recycling in Canada – A Policy Perspective
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Conference Room - A
16:00 - 16:30
Aldo Gonzalez, Queen's University
In-situ microplastic pre-treatment, sorting and detection using an inertial microfluidic device
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Conference Room - A
16:30 - 17:00
Zongchao Jia, Queen's University
Towards Computational Design of a P450-Based Enzyme for Polyethylene Hydroxylation
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Conference Room - A
17:00 - 18:30
All Registrants
Dinner in Dining Room
18:30 - 19:30
Daniel Duguay, Canadian Produce Marketing Association
Keynote Presentation (Session Chair: James McLellan)
Conference Room - A
19:30 - 22:30
All Registrants
Happy Hour in the Coach House Pub

Day 3
April 25, 2025
7:00 - 8:30
All Registrants
Breakfast
8:30 - 10:00
All Registrants
Fourth Session (Chair: George diCenzo)
Conference Room - A
8:30 - 9:00
Kailey Petz, University of Ottawa
Characterizing Enzymatic Potential for Plastic Degradation
Conference Room - A
9:00 - 9:30
Yuqin Xia, McGill University
Mechanistic and kinetic insights into mechano-enzymatic depolymerization of highly crystalline plastics under moist-solid conditions
Conference Room - A
9:30 - 10:00
Ariel Tastassa, University of Toronto
Towards the discovery of plastic-active biocatalysts
Conference Room - A
10:00 - 10:30
All Registrants
Coffee Break
10:30 - 12:10
All Registrants
Fifth Session (Chair: James McLellan)
Conference Room - A
10:30 - 11:00
Liwah Keller, Queen’s University
Investigating Heme-Dependent Oxygenases to Modify Non-Hydrolyzable Plastics
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Conference Room - A
11:00 - 11:30
Jiao Zhao, Queen’s University
Genome-scale metabolic model for : from isolates to pangenome and back again
Conference Room - A
11:30 - 12:00
Maria Cleveland, Queen’s University
Mining Thermophile Genomes for Nylon Hydrolases to Mitigate Waste Byproduct from Nylon Production
Conference Room - A
12:00 - 12:05
George diCenzo, Queen's University
Closing Remarks
Conference Room - A
12:05 - 12:10
All Registrants
Symposium Participants Group Picture
12:10 - 12:30
All Registrants
Boxed Lunch and Departure

Keynote Speakers
Bios
Keynote speaker
Daniel Duguay, B.Sc.A., M.Eng.
Senior Director – Sustainability | Canadian Produce Marketing Association
Since 2019, Dan has been leading the Canadian Produce Marketing Association's (CPMA) activities helping advance sustainability priorities across the fresh produce industry. His efforts encompass increasing the adoption of sustainable fresh produce packaging solutions, minimizing food loss and waste, reducing the fresh produce supply chain carbon footprint, and mitigating sustainability monitoring, reporting and audit risks. As the Secretary of the CPMA Sustainability Committee, Dan works alongside industry leaders spanning the fresh produce supply chain, from growers to retailers, as well as those enabling sustainable fresh produce supply chains. Together, they help advance the fresh produce industry's sustainability priorities in Canada and around the world. With a mix of experience in academia, the private sector, and the federal government of Canada, Dan brings a unique skillset to assisting CPMA members and the produce industry at large in maintaining and enhancing the sustainability of the fresh produce sector.
Dan holds a B.Sc.A. in chemical engineering from uOttawa, an M.Eng. in chemical engineering from McGill, and was a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, where he developed models to describe and predict the enzymatic degradation of biomedical polyurethanes. Dan is also the creator of Jishudō & trueselfvictory.org – a practice which applies the principles of martial arts to promoting emotional and mental wellness.

Keynote speaker
Ted Hsu
MPP - Kingston and the Islands
Ted Hsu (pronounced “shoe”) immigrated to Canada with his parents when he was six months old. He grew up and went to school in Kingston, graduating with a Bachelor of Science from Queen’s University in 1984. Ted completed a PhD in theoretical condensed matter physics at Princeton, and held postdoctoral appointments at UBC, and the Centre de la Recherche sur les tres basses temperatures in France. Ted worked as a researcher in theoretical physics at AECL, and worked in the financial sector for BNP, and Morgan Stanley Japan. Ted then settled down in Kingston with his wife and two daughters. The eldest is currently at university, and the youngest is in middle school.
From 2007 to 2011, Ted was the Executive Director of SWITCH, a sustainable energy association in southeastern Ontario. From 2011 to 2015, Ted was the federal MP for Kingston and the Islands. When former MP and Speaker of the House, Peter Milliken, stepped down, Ted won a highly contested local nomination race among five community leaders. In 2019, Ted was asked by Kingston’s Mayor Bryan Paterson to co-chair the Mayor’s Task Force on Housing.
In 2020, Ted sought and won the nomination for Kingston and the Islands, and became MPP for Kingston and the Islands in the provincial election of June 2022. Following his election as MPP, Ted was one of four candidates to seek the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party in 2023. During the leadership race, Ted travelled across Ontario and got to know many of the issues that various regions in the province are facing.
Ted is committed to protecting and improving the lives of Ontarians, whether it be fighting to make life affordable, advocating for a more productive and inclusive economy, or advancing sustainability and green energy to fight climate change. Ted currently holds Critic roles in the following areas: Energy, Natural Resources, and Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

Keynote speaker
Wolfgang Streit
Professor, Universität Hamburg
Prof. Wolfgang Streit is a Professor of Microbiology and Biotechnology at the University of Hamburg. He completed his PhD at Phillips-Universität Marburg (1989-94), Germany, where he worked on competitive growth and nodulation of Rhizobia. This was followed by postdoctoral fellowships at Phillips-Universität Marburg (1994-95) and UC-Davis (1995-97). Prof. Streit began his independent research career as a Research Group Leader in the Department of Genetics, University of Bielefeld, Germany (1997-98). This was followed by positions at the Institute of Microbiology and Genetics, University of Göttingen (1998-2004), and as a Professor for Enzyme Technology in the Dept. of Chemistry, Universität Duisburg-Essen (2004-2006). In 2006 he moved to his current position at Phillips-Universität Marburg, where he has held Acting and Deputy Directorships of the Institute of Molecular and Plant Sciences and Microbiology. Prof. Streit is an international leader in microbiology, genomics driven enzyme discovery, and biocatalysis. This includes plastic degrading enzymes, where his group has led milestone studies in the discovery, structure, and function of PET hydrolases. His lab also curates the PAZy database (www.pazy.eu), which lists all biochemically characterized plastic active enzymes. The Streit lab is also highly active in the study of bacterial biofilms and the impact of antibiotics and waste on microbiological diversity in wastewater. Prof. Streit is the author of more than 140 publications, 20 book chapters, and 5 patents, which collectively have been cited more than 12,500 times.


Venue
Donald Gordon Conference Centre
421 Union St, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6

Day 2
April 24, 2025
7:00 - 8:30
All Registrants
Breakfast
9:00 - 10:00
Wolfgang Streit (Universität Hamburg)
Keynote Presentation (Session Chair - David Zechel)
Plastic pollution, a global challenge: How do we find the best-plastic eating bacteria in nature?
Conference Room - A
10:00 - 10:30
All Registrants
Coffee Break
10:30 - 12:00
All Registrants
Second Session (Chair: Graeme Howe)
Conference Room - A
10:30 - 11:00
Andrew Tanentzap, Trent University
Using nature's solutions: identify novel plastic-degrading microbes from soils and freshwaters
Conference Room - A
11:00 - 11:30
Alana Rangaswamy, University of Ottawa
Development of a high-throughput assay towards engineering of nylon hydrolase enzymes
Conference Room - A
11:30 - 12:00
Elisabeth Prince, University of Waterloo
Comonomer additives for degradable and commodity plastics
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Conference Room - A
12:00 - 13:30
All Registrants
Lunch
13:30 - 15:00
All Registrants
Third Session (Chair: David Zechel)
Conference Room - A
13:30 - 14:00
Kevin De France, Queen’s University
From biomass to bioproducts: Designing sustainable materials with cellulose & protein
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Conference Room - A
14:00 - 14:30
Francis Roy, University of Ottawa
Circumventing the autoprocessing of nylon hydrolases by circular permutation
Conference Room - A
14:30 - 15:00
Kennedy Quigg, Queen’s University
Towards Polyurethane Biocatalysis: Discovery and Characterization of Novel Amidases
Conference Room - A
15:00 - 15:30
All Registrants
Coffee Break
15:30 - 17:00
All Registrants
Poster Session in Pub
17:00 - 18:30
All Registrants
Dinner in Dining Room
18:30 - 19:30
Ted Hsu, MPP - Kingston and the Islands
Keynote Presentation (Chair: James McLellan)
-
Conference Room - A
19:30 - 22:30
All Registrants
Happy Hour in the Coach House Pub

Posters
List
Poster | Title | Presenter |
---|---|---|
19 | Auto Degradation of Plastics with Embedded Enzymes | Shaoyan Wang |
18 | Culture-dependent and culture-independent approaches to identify plastic degrading microbes | Sabhjeet Kaur |
17 | Advancing closed loop plastic recycling using cold adapted enzymes for large-scale industrial applications | Erin Griffiths |
16 | Evolution of plastic degradation products during the action of the microbiota of superworms and mealworms. | Adèle LUTHI-MAIRE |
15 | Discovery and Characterization of Polyurethane degrading enzymes | Mosorire Tajudeen |
14 | Identification and optimization of novel PET depolymerases | Sofia Lemak |
13 | Discovery and Characterization of a New Thermostable Nylon-Degrading Enzyme from Leucobacter humi | Gaia Rota |
12 | Real-time LDPE biodegradation monitoring using microfluidic integrated ATR-FTIR spectroscopy platform | Saqib Ali |
11 | Discovery and Engineering of a Thermostable MHETase for Efficient PET Degradation | Zhenyu Hu |
10 | Characterization of the terephthalate dioxygenase and reductase for the bioelectrocatalysis of TPA | Robert Demerjian |
9 | Chemo-Biological Upcycling of Polyethylene and Polystyrene Using Yarrowia Spp. | Ameneh Norouzian |
8 | The Impact of Linker Design on the Efficiency of PET-Degrading Chimeric Enzymes | Arnaud Boudigou |
7 | Bio-prospecting for plastic degrading microbes from the microbiomes of darkling beetle larvae | Mia Rondinelli |
6 | Taxonomic characterization of 10 bacterial isolates collected from a plastic enrichment study | Sebastian You |
5 | Additional methods to evaluating polyethylene biodegradation by microfluidic device | Joy Sankar Roy |
4 | Hybrid Recycling of Polyvinyl Chloride and Polyethylene Terephthalate: A Life Cycle and Techno-Economic Assessment | Abdul Yaeesh Yaish |
3 | Enzymatic Modification of Non-hydrolyzable Plastics: Investigating Cytochrome P450 from Pseudomonas aeruginosa | Sahar Shokrgozar |
2 | Uncovering the microbial capacity for PE and PS biodegradation | Zjardyn Liera-Hood |
1 | Enhancing the hydrolytic efficiency of PET by a cutin hydrolase through site-saturated mutagenesis | Jaeick Lee |
