Team:US AFRL CarrollHS/Applied Design

Applied Design

Our product is an engineered E. Coli that destroys biofilms. Unlike biocides and other products currently on the market, our microorganism attacks both the bacterial and fungal components of the biofilm. Companies often express concerns about added microorganisms growing out of control and causing additional problems. To allay these fears, our product would be implemented early on, before significant amounts of bacteria or fungi have contaminated the fuel. Implemented in this manner, our microbe will only have to combat small amounts of microorganisms. Consequently, only very small concentrations of the microbe will have to be added, making it unlikely to impact fuel combustion or damage the storage unit containing the fuel. Furthermore, the cinnamaldehyde produced by our microbe could also function as a kill switch. Our microbe could be engineered such that the cinnamaldehyde will eliminate the designed microbe after being produced, limiting the growth of our microbe.