Elora Therapeutics: Treating Microplastics in Humans
- Pervasive Exposure: Microplastics have been detected in human blood, brain, and placental tissue, with PET being the most common polymer, and there is no existing therapeutic to remove them.
- Proof of Concept: PETase has been shown to degrade PET microplastics into non-toxic monomers in human serum at physiological temperature without compromising cell viability.
- Validation Underway: Elora Therapeutics is planning a multi-milestone validation study with UT Austin to establish enzyme stability, safety, and efficacy in humans.
- New Therapeutic Category: Elora Therapeutics is the first company pursuing FDA approval for an enzyme-based therapeutic that degrades and safely removes microplastics from the human body.
- Elora Therapeutics
- Elora Therapeutics Pitch Deck
- Austin Technology Incubator
- Elora Therapeutics
- Marc C Deller
- Paul Swartzendruber
- Microplastics Blog
- Elora Therapeutics Provisional Patent
- isPETase Discovered in Landfill Isolates
- Efficacy and Safety in Human Serum
- PET-hydrolytic Enzymes in the Gut
- MicroPlastics Blaster
We aim to Develop a First-in-Class Enzyme Therapy Designed to Degrade and Safely Remove Microplastics from the Human Body
Humans ingest an estimated 74,000 to 121,000 microplastic particles per year, and these synthetic fragments now appear in blood, brain tissue, and even the placenta, where they drive chronic inflammation, metabolic dysfunction, and endocrine disruption.
Among the polymers detected, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is the most prevalent in human tissues, and our biology has no mechanism to clear it. Elora Therapeutics is developing the first FDA-targeted therapeutic to address this problem at its origin: engineered PETase and MHETase enzymes designed to depolymerize PET microplastics into non-toxic monomers directly within biological fluids.
Recent proof-of-concept research demonstrated that an engineered PETase can degrade PET in human serum at 37°C without affecting cell viability, establishing that enzymatic degradation of microplastics in the body is scientifically feasible. Building on this foundation, Elora Therapeutics has partnered with the University of Texas at Austin to conduct a systematic validation study evaluating enzyme stability, dose-response safety, and breakdown product biocompatibility in human serum and cell models.
Embedded in the Austin Technology Incubator and led by a team with deep experience across Pfizer, Stanford, Ginkgo Bioworks, and the NIH, Elora is positioned to define an entirely new category of biologic therapeutics: one that targets the environmental drivers of metabolic disease rather than managing downstream symptoms.