Team:SoundBio/Integrated HP
Integrated Human Practices
Throughout the course of the year, our team reached out to a variety of researchers, surgeons, and academics to guide the design and future of our project. Seeking to diversify our team’s skills and knowledge, connect our project to important societal issues, and adapt our project’s design accordingly, we intentionally integrated our human practices work with all facets of our project.
Project Development and Societal Impact
The creation of our project was heavily guided by and influenced by our conversations and interviews with Michael Florea, a member of the Imperial 2014 iGEM team; Dr. Nicole S. Gibran, a University of Washington professor of Surgery and Trauma & Burn; and Dr. Eliane Trovati, a researcher from the São Carlos Institute of Chemistry. These experts, among others, informed our design by helping us better understand the growth of and intrinsic properties of bacterial cellulose, necessary conditions for wound treatments, and the feasibility of and points to consider in our design.We had an interview with Dr. Nicole Gibran from whom we learned that:
- Currently there is no consensus on what the ideal burn treatment is
- BC would be useful for burn patients but it needs to have 5 key properties: antimicrobial, anaesthetic, promote wound healing, monitor wound, inexpensive
- BC should be provided in various forms (bandages, squares, sheets, rolls) for a variety of burn cases
Michael Florea’s guidance and feedback regarding the experimentation that the Imperial 2014 iGEM team conducted and assistance in our own project development were core to our project. Originally, we planned to optimize bacterial cellulose product, but we found that this obstacle has been overcome in industry already. With inspiration from Florea’s feedback, our project focus moved to optogenetically controlling the expression of proteins attached to bacterial cellulose. “For example, you could engineer cellulose production to be light-controlled, and thus pattern 2D or 3D surfaces. Or grow them on scaffolds and pattern them with color. Or make them form complex patterns with cell-cell communication. Or make them co-produce dyes or other additives in the cellulose for fabrics production (dying is a big problem in fashion). Or do something with the fact that K.rhaeticus iGEM seems to be nitrogen fixing (although we can't explain how). Any case, there are lots of possibilities and I'm sure you'll be able to come up with more”
Through correspondence with Dr. Eliane Trovati, we learned that spatially functionalizing bacterial cellulose is a worthwhile pursuit for improving burn wound treatment. This pushed us to research what proteins to attach to BC and how we should functionalize BC for burn wounds.
Project Design and Further Development
As we worked on our project, we continued to work with different experts to further morph our design and help complete our project. Through many site/business visits and continued correspondence with professionals such as Samer Halabiya, the lab manager at the University of Washington’s BIOFAB; material specialists at TAP Plastics Seattle; and Dr. Jeffrey Tabor, an associate professor and researcher at Rice University, we were able to continually grow and improve our project.We worked closely with Samer Halabiya and BIOFAB to make Gibson assembly designs and directions on our workflow (like colony PCR). Mr. Halabiya was crucial in helping us troubleshoot and inform our design.
While designing our bioreactor, we visited and worked with TAP Plastics Seattle to determine the plastic to use for our bioreactor that could withstand our conditions, namely pH and heat from the incubator and autoclave. With their guidance, our team constructed a step-box, polycarbonate bioreactor chamber that had custom holes for different input ports and sensors.
Dr. Jeffrey Tabor, whose research specializes in optogenetics, assisted us in modeling the Cph8-OmpR system. He and his team created and documented a model for that system, along with protocols for how to parameterize it and a schematic for the hardware involved in doing so. This was the foundation for our work, and we were able to bypass much of the more complex measurements and parameters involved in a finer model. We used 3D printed parts and a raspberry pi to create the necessary data-collection device (taking suggestions from Dr. Tabor's paper), and adapted code provided in the same paper (which used python’s lmfit library) to fit the model to data collected.
Other Future Project Applications and Development
Additionally, we reached out to other experts in synthetic biology and bacterial cellulose in order to gauge the possibilities and limits of using bacterial cellulose in not just wound treatment, but other various fields such as biomedicine and package design. After interviewing with Dr.Trovati, Alfie Germano, and Dr. Richard Gustafson, we learned more about the viability of our project in these diverse fields.See more about Bacterial cellulose in:
CLOTHING
ProsThe apparel industry is carbon and water intensive. In fact, one T-shirt takes 2,700 litres of water to produce. Overall, textiles production contributes 1200 billion kilograms of CO2 per year, which is more emissions than international flights and maritime shippingCons
After speaking with Alfie Germano, we believe that our project would have limited contributions to the BC clothing industry because production methods just don’t line up.As a result, we did not pursue further research into this application.
JET FUEL
ProsAs of today, fuels and chemicals made of petroleum are environmentally draining. Using cellulose, scientists can convert it to ethanol and ultimately jet fuel without having to drill and threaten nature.Cons/Challenges
As exciting as this application sounds, we received feedback from Dr. Ricahrd Gustafon from the UW College of the Environment:
“I really don’t see any way that bacterial cellulose could be incorporated into the production of fuel, it’s WAY too expensive. It’s much better to focus on using bacterial cellulose to produce high value products like the membranes for burn victims.”With that, we decided not to pursue jet fuel and focus research more on the biomedical applications like burn treatment.
PACKAGING
ProsMost food packaging is made out of plastic which oftentimes isn’t disposed of responsibly. Scientist Emma Sicher has developed bacterial cellulose to be used as packing for dry foods like pasta, cereal, legumes, and candies.Cons
The current BC packaging absorbs water which makes it less competitive to plastic packaging.
For future purposes, researchers should consider functionalizing BC to have a hydrophobic packing to make it more versatile and useful.Overall, we chose not to pursue this application because we felt that spatial functionalization would not have special merits.
AIR POLLUTION
ProsWe can functionalize bacterial cellulose to release enzymes that would degrade PM 2.5 chemicals, which in turn would reduce the damaging effect of summer wildfires on one’s lungs.
We can also develop an air filter to limit the scope of air pollution. Almost all air pollutants can easily be captured through such a filter based on cellulose and soy, which is proven to be biodegradable and cost-effective. Further, these ingredients have been tested to be effective in other applications, such as adhesives or plastic products.Cons
After speaking with Dr. Edmund Seto and Jennifer Macuiba from the UW Department of Environmental and Health Sciences, we followed their feedback and researched more about how bacterial cellulose has been used in the past for air pollution.
We found out that most applications of BC in pollution were with water treatment.
One of the questions Dr. Edmund Seto asked was if the technology was cost effective. And we found that the existing soy and cellulose based filter was both cost effective and biodegradable.However, we chose not to pursue this application because we could not find any examples where bacterial cellulose was SPATIALLY controlled for functionalization to address this issue. Perhaps spatially attaching enzymes to degrade pollutants could be effective, but we could not find any expert or research to support that proposal.