Team:PuiChing Macau

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Currently, there is a lack of efficient and applicable techniques for removing endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in the wastewater treatment process. We hereby propose to create a sustainable system that will be able to degrade EDCs into non-toxic compounds. Laccases have been proven to be effective in the degradation of many compounds, including EDCs. In this project, we will explore using E.coli strain BL21 DE3 as the host to produce the selected Laccases, one of which was suggested by the 2012 Biefield iGEM team to be one of the better performing laccases, and another one was recently suggested to be more effective. We will also develop two sustainable Laccase secretion systems:

  1. Using E.coli BL 21 DE 3 as the host and Novel signal peptides 4 (NSP 4) as the secretion signal peptide.
  2. Cyanobacteria as the host and PilA as the secretion signal peptide, which aim to utilize the energy from photosynthesis, to more sustainably and cheaply produce Laccases.

This is the first time that Pui Ching has participated in iGEM. However, we believe that we will be capable of completing this project and making an impact on the world.