Intoduction

Our project focused on the bioremediation of wastewater which is an issue present in the industrial sector and throughout the environment. Clean freshwater is a finite resource and bioremediation of contaminated water bodies is becoming increasingly important. Emerging innovative technologies for effective and low energy treatment of wastewater exists. It was important for us to discover what impact our project could have among existing wastewater treatment technologies. We also believed it was important to obtain insight from relevant stakeholders which would help our project evolve into a valuable and useful method. In other words, we felt integrated Human Practices was paramount in the construction of our project.

Our starting point was a paper which we discovered in Nature titled: Acoustic Reporter Genes for Noninvasive Imaging of Microorganisms in Mammalian Hosts, published by the lab of Mikhail Shapiro, at Caltech. This paper used an established biological process -- the formation of simple gas-filled vesicles in known bacteria and archaea -- in an innovative way: as an imaging platform, using specific resonances to selectively collapse the vesicles and mapping their locations in mammalian deep tissue.

Through this paper, our Wet Lab team knew that viable parameters for manipulating the gas vesicle size, shape, and location did exist. These parameters exist in the form of the different genes that produce the gas vesicles; from here, we would use these parameters and combine them with the unique aspects of our project -- coupling the expression of gas vesicles with the bacteria in question binding to our molecule of interest. Now, theoretically, we could use the bacteria to separate our molecule of interest from water and then make the bacteria float using vesicles. By creating a physically separate layer where the bacteria had taken up the contaminant in question, this makes the water treatment process dramatically easier, and produces a viable bioremediation platform!

We contacted the Shapiro lab and they agreed to send us key bacterial strains needed to produce our vesicular construct. Correspondence with the Shapiro lab and previous relevant iGEM teams taught us how to optimize the parameters for gas vesicle production to meet our needs. Concurrent with this process was research and the writing of a comprehensive literature review. This research provided us with the knowledge about the genetic system responsible for gas vesicle production and that there are a few critical genes which we can be manipulated and used in the optimization of gas vesicle production, GvpA and GvpC. Conveying this knowledge to our Wet Lab Team, they were able to use these leads to optimize gas vesicle expression and create a model bioremediation system in the lab.

By developing a biomass separation platform using cells with enhanced biosorptive abilities, we can capture high-value materials or pollutants from wastewater effluent which could be a viable alternative dewatering process to complement or replace traditional centrifugation and filtration processes. Our aspiration was to develop such a platform that can be used in industry, to benefit the environment, and have real-world application. Using scientific discoveries from various articles and feedback from departmental graduate students (CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS), wet lab decided to use microbial gas vesicles in the bioremediation of wastewater. Meeting with stakeholders and experts allowed us to establish our project’s applicability within the industry and the potential it had to eliminate energy inefficiencies, harsh chemical uses, expensive processes, obtainment of high-value materials and pollutant removal. Secondly, these meetings ensured our project was developed to be used responsibly. Based on the feedback received from stakeholders, public opinion, and policymakers, we had our Human Practices team focus on the applicability of our project by determining design constraints to guide our wet lab and dry lab work. We believe by focusing on addressing key issues, the rational development of a useful “GMO” technology could outweigh the often irrational fear of GMOs.

Two specific stakeholder interactions influenced our project. From this, we learned that our project had some potential to achieve remove pollutants such as microplastics and pharmaceuticals, or extracting heavy metals and other high-value materials, ultimately resulting in clean, usable water.

KINROSS - Extraction of Valuables & Removal of Pollutants

Kinross is a gold mining corporation which prides themselves on the importance of health, safety, and environment in their mining operations.

“[The questions we would ask are the following:] What mechanism is being used to do the bioremediation and if an organism, like E.coli, is being used, how was it modified and what new characteristics does it have after the modification? And where does the characteristic come from? We would also look into the possible harm presented to the environment and human health. Could the modified organism have adverse effects on the environment or people who come in contact with the organism?”
Dr. Valar Anoop, Senior Biologist, Biotechnology, Health Canada (Episode Six: Policy)