Team:Wroclaw/Description

description health threat filter lab diary
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Our inspiration

The greatest inspiration for our project was awareness of the scale of the threat to human health posed by air pollution. High concentrations of heavy metals in the air adversely affect human health causing numerous allergies, heart and lung diseases, and poisoning. Knowledge on this subject has led us to construct an innovative microbiological filter, whose task will be to purify the air in residential buildings containing significant amounts of heavy metals.

Solution

In our project, we plan to use Yarrowia lipolytica yeast due to their resistance to high metal concentrations and the ability to bind metals in large quantities. The natural defense mechanism of Yarrowia yeast is the production of specific proteins to respond to environmental stress. In addition, these yeasts, in conditions of high concentration of heavy metals in the environment, are capable of creating a biofilm in which impurities are immobilized. According to our researches, the use of the given mechanism in the bioremediation process will allow the recovery of heavy metals from the contaminated environment. In addition, yeast Yarrowia lipolytica is considered to be health-safe microorganisms, thanks to which our filter gains a guarantee of safety for the user. While working on the project, we will use genetic engineering techniques and we will strive to create a yeast model which, under the influence of induction with a high concentration of metal ions, will produce a fragrance and red dye. The creation of color and fragrance will be a determinant of the time at which the filter needs to be replaced. The process of designing and creating the modified organism of Yarrowia lipolytica will enable synthetic biology, which requires the use of mathematical modeling techniques and the optimization of its operation in order to predict the behavior of the system which is the chosen microorganism.

You can read more about our filter and why we choose Yarrowia lipolytica HERE.

  • References

  • Zabiegała B (2009) Jakość powietrza wewnętrznego - lotne związki organiczne jako wskaźnik jakości powietrza wewnętrznego. Monografie Komitetu Inżynierii Środowiska PAN 59(2): 303–315. Sieczyńska K (2017) Metale ciężkie w kurzu z pomieszczeń zamkniętych użyteczności publicznej. Technologia i Jakość Wyrobów 62: 149–160.

  • Ociepa-Kubicka A and Ociepa E (2012) Toksyczne oddziaływanie metali ciężkich na rośliny, zwierzęta i ludzi. Inżynieria i Ochrona Środowiska 15(2): 169–180.

  • Jan AT, Azam M, Siddiqui K, Ali A, Choi I and Haq QMR (2015) Heavy metals and human health: Mechanistic insight into toxicity and counter defense system of antioxidants. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 16(12): 29592–29630.

  • Bankar A, Zinjarde S, Shinde M, Gopalghare G and Ravikumar A (2018) Heavy metal tolerance in marine strains of Yarrowia lipolytica. Extremophiles. Springer Japan 22(4): 617–628. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-018-1022-y.