Team:Baltimore BioCrew/Demonstrate
The BioCrew's Visionary Aspiration to Accommodate the "Real World"
The issue that we, the Baltimore BioCrew, investigated was the significant pollution of plastic in our community Inner Harbor. Using synthetic biology, we wanted to realistically rid such waste through the implementation of a genetically modified E.coli colony that degrades PET plastics using two enzymes from Ideonella Sakaiensis, a newly discovered Japanese bacterium.
We realize that under real-world conditions, placing genetically engineered E. coli into a reputable body of water valued by the large population of Maryland is not a very flattering proposal.
Taking the negative stigma placed around E. coli into consideration, along with the potential risk of marine ecosystems' safety and the possibility of this bacteria evolving, the Baltimore BioCrew wanted to establish a project design that would make our proposal seem less like a stunt and more like a scientific solution.
To demonstrate our whole system of using E. coli K12 as our organism “model”, the team deemed that it was advantageous in the sense that it was stable, inexpensive, quick to procreate.
Since we are currently running test trials on our E. coli, we are confident that if it behaves as we hypothesize it to, the many potential uses for our G.M.O. would be systematic. We could install vacuums onto sailboats that collect plastics to further degrade them in some sort of hypothetical compartment; we could form a new type of disposal bin, much like recycling, to collect the plastic and leave it in the E.coli solution to disassemble itself; we could even have large industrial plastic collection tanks that accumulate plastics from junk yards and dissolve them there.
With this being said, in addition to the incorporation of the hydrolytic enzymes within our bacteria, the bacteria could be able to use the very PET plastics as a carbon source, allowing it to procreate with very minimal measures.
Rather than perpetuating the painting of a picture where E. coli derives a detrimental connotation associated with it, further ideas involve giving it the ability to convert the carbon it consumes into energy that could power technology ranging from light bulbs to hydroelectric wheels.
Our ideas may seem ambitious, but E. coli's ability to reproduce quickly could make our genetically engineered bacteria much more than a large energy supply- it could be the global solution to a problem we’ve been facing for decades.
