Team:Western Canada/Description
Project Description
Abstract
The presence of newly identified or emerging contaminants (ECs) in our bodies of water is of growing concern for the health and safety of humans and the environment. These undesirable organic compounds range from endocrine disruptors and pharmaceuticals to personal care products, pesticides, and fertilizers. The existing wastewater treatment plants lack adequate infrastructure for removing these pollutants. In this project, we propose the use of a synthetic biology approach to develop a self-assembling catalytic bacterial biofilm capable of degrading ECs. The bacteria will be engineered to express fusion proteins that assemble into fibrous structures extracellularly and enable greater accessibility of the enzyme's substrate. The proposed platform for EC degradation is a versatile and promising avenue for the removal of these toxic compounds from wastewater.
Project Inspiration
"Sooner or later, we will have to recognize that the earth has rights, too, to live without pollution. What mankind must know is that human beings cannot live without mother earth, but the planet can live without humans. ~ Evo Morales.
It is often easy to neglect or take for granted access to clean, safe drinking water in developed countries. The presence of emerging contaminants in aquatic environments is a growing concern globally due to their potential serious long-term impact on wildlife and human health1. High levels of these toxins are ingested by marine life around the world, potentially disrupting reproductive, developmental, behavioral, and metabolic processes in aquatic life2,3. The hierarchical model of consumption also puts humans at risk for consuming potentially mutagenic EC’s3.
Once our team learned about EC’s, and the lack of regulations in place to monitor these substances, our interest was peaked. Our team began to think about how many people are uninformed of the risk that EC’s pose in maintaining clean, safe drinking water and hurting the aquatic environment.
“To the general public it is kind of like you can’t see them (EC’s), so nobody cares, and they don’t matter. Until they do matter, and we are all in trouble.” ~Gary Burrow City of London Wastewater Supervisor
When was the last time you thought about what you were flushing? Or where the water goes after you wash your hands? What materials and chemicals may be running down the pipes into the wastewater treatment plants? These were all questions our team brainstormed and thought about when deciding to take on this project. In the US alone, it is estimated that over 250 million pounds of pharmaceuticals are flushed down the drain each year4. Most importantly and relevant to our project we were unable to find much in the way of regulation to protect the public from undetected EC's.
We learned that there exists a gap between the growing literature on emerging contaminants and the capacity of contemporary wastewater processes to detect & treat them.5. Synthetic biology presents an opportunity to develop novel tools to detect and treat emerging contaminants in municipal or industrial wastewater treatment infrastructure.
“As the creation of consumable and industrial plastic material types continue to rise, the growing abundance of EC in marine and freshwater bodies of water have been regarded as inevitable” ~United Nations
Our team knew we had to create a scalable, versatile, feasible, and economically responsible way to remove emerging contaminants from wastewater treatment plants. We hope that our research can serve as a stepping stone into a better understanding of how toxic compounds in wastewater can be removed efficiently and safely before having a detrimental impact on the global environmental and human health.
To see our teams comprehensive project proposal and references, click here.