Team Chem

1
Team Chem

• Biological Water Filtration

2
Purification Process

• Add cells to possibly contaminated water
• Cells take in arsenic and store it
• Cells provide an output (color) signaling the
  water is clean or needs further processing
• Separate of cells from water
• Possibility for further processing

3
Devices

• 2 Arsenic Sensors
• Sensitive activated by any arsenic
• Non-sensitive activated by maximum tolerable
  arsenic level
• 2 Color Generators
• Arsenic Transport and Storage Device

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Arsenic Transport and Storage
Arsenic Measurement
Remove the gene that encodes this transport
protein
Tripathi, R.D., Srivastava, S., Mishra, S.,
Singh, N., Tuli, R., Gupta, D.K. and Maathuis, F.
Arsenic Hazards Strategies for Tolerance and
Remediation by Plants. Trends in Biotechnology.
2007, 25.4, 158-165.
5
Device Level Diagram
Color Generator 1 (constitutively active)
Outside Vacuole
Inside Vacuole or with a Timer
Color Generator 2
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Simulation Pure Water
Green Color Generator (constitutively active)
Red Color Generator
Result Cells Stay Green ? Separation
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Simulation Maximum Arsenic
Green Color Generator (constitutively active)
Red Color Generator
Result Cells Turn Red ? Separate and Process
Again
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Timing Diagram Maximum Arsenic
Contaminated Water Added
Midlevel As
Maximum As
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Timing Diagram Midlevel Arsenic
Contaminated Water Added
Midlevel As
Maximum As
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Biological PartsBackground System
ARR2
ARR1
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Biological PartsControl System
P(x)
YCF1
GSH1
P(y)
GCGD BBa_K274004
As
Asmax
P(z)
RCGD BBa_K274100
X-Repressor
Y-Repressor
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Cellular Chassis
Sourcehttp//www.botany.hawaii.edu/nlc_biology/1
406/lab/r2/slide6.jpg
Source http//www.ppws.vt.edu/scott/weed_id/eldd
e.htm
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Testing/Debugging

• Cell Death
• Effectiveness of ARR1, ARR1, YCF1, GSH1
• Need to determine Vacuole limits
• Testing Color Generators
• Promoter Design

Source http//www.sciencephoto.com/images/
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Global Impacts
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Impacts

• If this process succeeds
• Solves one of the most problematic issues of the
  developing world, saving millions of lives.
• 70 million people are affected in Bangladesh
  alone - arsenic in ground water is the cause of
  23 of all the deaths there!

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Why Biological Water Filtration by Team Chemistry?

• No energy requirement (operates independent of
  electricity)
• Accessibility to effective water filtration
  technology even in rural parts of the developing
  world
• Very low cost of sustaining system
• The end product is not a waste
• Possibility of selling to pharmaceutical
  companies and turning a profit

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Open Issues

• Elodea is the current choice of organism
• Common water weed robust, packaged for surviving
  in water
• The cost of entire project is unknown.
• Legal issues attached to introducing genetically
  modified organisms into the environment?
• Length of effectiveness is unknown
• (How long until the organism reaches max arsenic
  uptake capacity?)
• The process of genetically modifying plants is
  very slow

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Go/ No Go?
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Citations

• Saccharomyces Genome Database www.yeastgenome.org
• Standard Registry of Biological Parts
  www.partregistry.org