Aspidia

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

PFAS biodegradation may depend less on “the right microbe” and more on the right community. This study shows only highly diverse consortia (20–33 genera) achieved stable PFOS breakdown, with defluorination and chain-shortening. Can we engineer this at scale?

@newstart_2024 Nice study, wrong conclusion. PFOA/PFOS half-lives in humans = 3–5 years. No microbiome outpaces daily exposure from water, food, cosmetics. You can't probiotic your way out of forever chemicals. The answer is remediation — destroy PFAS at the source.

Your gut bacteria might be quietly acting as a built-in filter against “forever chemicals”, and new research just showed how impressive that defense can be. The Jaxen Report covered a fresh study on PFAS (persistent toxins found in military base water, cosmetics, and more). Certain human gut strains — especially Bacteroides uniformis, Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, Odoribacter splanchnicus, and others act like living sponges. They rapidly soak up 25–74% of PFAS within minutes, store them safely inside their cells (even at high concentrations), and help flush them out through waste. The bacteria keep performing even as toxin levels rise. It’s remarkable proof of how sophisticated our microbiome can be when we support it. What really landed for me is realizing how much of our long-term resilience might depend on protecting these invisible allies. I’ve been paying more attention to what harms gut bacteria - ultra-processed foods, heavy drinking, and casual antibiotic use, because the ripple effects feel more significant the deeper you look. In a world swimming in toxins we can’t completely avoid, nurturing a strong, diverse microbiome (with strains like these Bacteroides species) could be one of the smartest daily protections we have. What’s one thing you’ve changed (or want to change) to better support your gut bacteria?

PFAS may be silencing your immune system. A new study shows water-soluble PFAS shut down antibody production in human cells, by hijacking the stress-hormone pathway. In vitro only, but it may explain why exposed people respond worse to vaccines. DOI: 10.1007/s00204-026-04377-0

Concentrating PFAS is useful — it makes treatment cheaper. But the real challenge is destroying them affordably. That's what we're building at ASPIDIA: TriClean and DEHA, two platforms designed to turn captured PFAS into harmless minerals. Capture + destroy. 3/3

Here's the catch: the sponges don't destroy PFAS. They just move them from water into the sponge, then into a cleaning liquid. The toxic molecules are still there. Still dangerous. Still "forever." Capture isn't cleanup. It's just relocation. 📰: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ac… 2/3

🧽 A new study just showed that cheap cellulose sponges can pull up to 92% of "forever chemicals" (PFAS) out of water. Reusable. Affordable. Promising. But the headline hides a problem that changes everything about how we should clean up PFAS. 🧵 1/3

A new study in Atlantic salmon liver cells found that four regulated PFAS altered pathways linked to lipids, bile acids, and cholesterol, even without clear cell death. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2026.120155

A useful PFAS study looked beyond the lab. Over two years, one biochar strongly limited PFAS movement in contaminated soil, especially when used as a barrier, though performance for short-chain PFAS weakened over time. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2026.142119

A new study reports a ball milling process using sodium silicate to break down polymeric and nonpolymeric PFAS and recover fluorine as sodium fluoride. An interesting direction for more practical PFAS remediation research. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.6c01470

A new Swiss study of 630 adults found that age, sex, diet, and some everyday products were strongly linked to PFAS blood levels. DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2026.110251

Why do some PFAS stay in the body longer than others? This study used computer modeling to show how kidney transport proteins may shape PFAS buildup and half-life. A useful step for better remediation and safer design. DOI: 10.1016/j.cbi.2026.112100

In male mice, long-term exposure was linked to lower sperm production and changes in sperm biology, with stronger effects in the first generation. More reason to invest in better PFAS cleanup tools. DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2026.124528

Source: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ac… #PFAS #bioremediation #remediation #cleanwater

"Forever chemicals" (PFAS) don't stay in water. New study: they travel from sediment → insect larvae → adult insects → riverbank spiders 🕷️ They cross from water to land — affecting the whole ecosystem. Understanding how they travel is the first step to stopping them.

Source: academic.oup.com/etc/advance-ar…

PFOS is not just persistent, it is toxic. A recent study on Ruditapes decussatus found tissue-specific damage, with gills as the primary target. Another clear sign that PFAS pollution is harming marine ecosystems and demands better monitoring and remediation. #PFAS

Source: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ac… 2/2

New research shows that even high-temperature destruction of PFOS and PFOA can generate other PFAS byproducts. This highlights a key point: scalable, low-cost remediation and bioremediation of contaminated water may be the most practical solution to PFAS pollution. 1/2