We're teaching civilization to metabolize its own waste.
RestoreLAB develops the biotechnology to turn discarded plastic and other waste streams into microbial biomass — a raw material for healthier soil, new materials, and a genuine reciprocity between industry and the living world.
One plastic-degrading microbe, engineered to make waste processing cheap enough to profit from.
Biomass as a platform: it can feed soil and ecosystems or become the raw material for advanced materials.
Built for local waste streams first, with the intent to scale to the world's.
An age of reciprocity, not retreat.
The Ecozoic is the age in which our highly technological civilization finally exists in deep reciprocity with the living world it depends on — the ecosystem services we've long taken for granted.
Getting there doesn't mean de-industrializing. Industrialization, and the tools it produced, gave humanity real gifts: shared information, shared infrastructure, a single interconnected species. The way back to reciprocity runs through those same tools, not away from them.
RestoreLAB starts with one piece of that puzzle: what we do with waste. Instead of burying our problems in landfills and ignoring them, we can actively metabolize waste into something the living world can use.
From landfill material to living material.
Feed the microbe
Start with a single, well-understood waste stream — PET, the polyester plastic behind bottles and packaging — and a microbe already capable of breaking it down.
Grow the biomass
RestoreLAB's research focuses on making that digestion cheap and efficient enough to run at scale, converting waste into microbial biomass as the output.
Put it to work
That biomass becomes a platform ingredient — supporting soil health directly, or serving as raw material for advanced products.
From lab bench to a life-centric industry.
RestoreLAB develops life-centric biotechnologies that transform waste carbon — plastics, CO₂, mixed waste, and micro-/nanoplastics — into microbial biomass for soil health and green technologies.
Current Achievements 2023–2026
Accelerating PET Plastic Bioconversion
- Doubled PET biodegradation rate via biochemical stimulation
- Engineered an enhanced PET-eating strain with the Tabor Lab
- Identified novel biodegradation genes (bioRxiv, 2025)
- Grant: NSF CAREER, "Enhancing Microbial Metabolization of Plastic Waste" (under review)
Bio-Capturing CO₂ with a Plastic-Eating Microbe
- Discovered conditions enabling a photosynthetic phenotype
- IP disclosure submitted
- Collaboration with Arpita Bose (WashU)
- Grant: NSF Standard Grant (in prep)
Discovering New Plastic-Eating Microbes
- Prototypes built for rapid environmental microbe selection
- Screening across PET, PE, PP, PS, and more
- PLASTIHENGE sci-art collaboration with Sayaka Ganz — watch the talk
Near-Term Goals
CO₂ Bio-Capture
- Plastic-eating microbe fixing CO₂
New Plastic-Degrading Microbes
- Continued discovery & screening
Future Goals 2026–2036
1. Rapidly Scaling PET Bioconversion
- Industrial fermentation compatibility
- Technoeconomic analysis
- First Eco-Pump Plant (EPP)
2. Mastering New Microbes & Polymers
- Acquire & optimize degraders for all major polymers
- 5–10 years, 10 scientists
3. Bioconverting Mixed Waste
- Sequential biodegradation pipeline
- UBQ-style homogenization
- 2–5 years, 3–5 scientists
4. Harvesting & Bioconverting MNPs
- Retrieval, sorting & amalgamation of micro/nanoplastics
- 2 years, 2 scientists
- Grant: NIH R21, "Wastewater Monitoring to Track Forever Plastics" (under review)
End Result 10-Year Vision
A new life-centric waste processing industry, powered by Eco-Pump Plants (EPPs) that convert solid waste — including MNPs — into regenerative biomass for soil health and green technologies.
Anthony Maresso, PhD
Co-Founder, RestoreLABProvided early financial, technical, and intellectual support for the vision of RestoreLAB.
Professor, Baylor College of Medicine Baylor College of Medicine profile →A simple, supremely elegant idea.
"I don't need to do this. I want to, given what I understand about where we are and the unique ways in which I can contribute."
Felipe-Andres Piedra, PhD, founded RestoreLAB to do the basic research needed to turn waste metabolism into a working, scalable process — one that can meet a community's waste needs first, and eventually the world's.
He's open about standing largely alone on this specific approach today, and open about wanting company: if others are pursuing the same idea, better and faster, he'd rather see it done than done by him alone. The goal isn't ownership of the idea — it's getting the Ecozoic built.
Anthony Maresso, PhD, a full professor at Baylor College of Medicine, joined as co-founder, providing early financial, technical, and intellectual support for RestoreLAB's vision.
Help build the lab that metabolizes what we throw away.
RestoreLAB is raising capital to fund the foundational research: developing and scaling the procedures that turn waste into microbial biomass, starting with PET plastic.
Notes from the Ecozoic.
Short, shareable pieces on the science and thinking behind RestoreLAB.