Team:PuiChing Macau/Description
To Develop A Sustainable System for Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals Degradation
Project Inspiration
The primary investigator in our team, Wai Man CHEONG, is the chemistry teacher in our school Pui Ching Macau. During an organic chemistry, Miss Cheong once introduced some of the organic contaminants including some of the common Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals such as bisphenol A and DEHP and had left a profound impression on us. On 18th May, 2019, Miss Cheong organized a visit to the Macau Transrontier Industrial Park Wastewater Station and the technicians there told us the removal of EDCs were not included in the wastewater treatment in Macau. After that, we had done some online research and found that there was currently a lack of efficient and applicable techniques for removing EDCs in the wastewater treatment process, which had inspired us and ultimately turn into our iGEM project topic.
What are EDCs?
Some chemicals can affect the endocrine (hormonal) system and interfere with important developmental processes in humans and wildlife species. These chemicals are mostly termed as the Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs).
EDCs are chemicals or mixtures of chemicals that interfere with the way the body’s hormones work.
Some EDCs act like "hormone mimics" and trick our body into thinking that they are hormones, while other EDCs block natural hormones from doing their job. Other EDCs can increase or decrease the levels of hormones in our blood by affecting how they are made, broken down, or stored in our body. Finally, other EDCs can change how sensitive our bodies are to different hormones.
EDCs can disrupt many different hormones, which is why they have been linked to numerous adverse human health outcomes including alterations in sperm quality and fertility, abnormalities in sex organs, endometriosis, early puberty, altered nervous system function, immune function, certain cancers, respiratory problems, metabolic issues, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular problems, growth, neurological and learning disabilities, and more.
What are their effects on human life?
Endocrine disruptors are chemicals generally known to interfere with hormone action by altering the endocrine system thus having an adverse impact on the human beings and other fauna including wildlife. Some classes of EDCs (DDT, BPA, phthalates, PCBs, others) can affect reproductive health by mimicking or blocking the effects of male and female sex hormones
How do we solve the problem?
Since there is lack of efficient and applicable techniques for removing endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in the wastewater treatment process, we propose to use engineered E.coli BL21 (DE3) to produce our selected Laccases.(Lac1326, a temperature and pH stable laccase from marine bacteria and K863030, a well-studied laccase designed by a previous iGEM team called iGEM12_Bielefeld-Germany). We cloned a collection of Laccases into E. coli, which include a stress-tolerant laccase. To enhance the EDC degradation efficiency, we also added a secretion signal peptide, NSP4 to the laccases expressed in E. coli. However, aiming for a sustainable EDC degradation system, we further optimized our design by transforming the laccases(LAC1326), with a pilA secretion signal peptide, into cyanobacteria (Synechococcus sp, widely used in laboratories for studying photosynthesis pathways.)In addition, we also designed a water filter that fits our engineered bacteria. Altogether, we believe that our project can help to find a solution for EDC water pollution.