Team:TEC GenetiX CCM/Project
Project
Our project is called Toximon. We got the name from the idea of combining the words toxins and Pokemon. The name refers to our bacteria’s ability to “capture” toxins just like a Pokemon trainer would catch Pokemon. The name is easy to remember and distinguishes our project from the rest.
In the 21st century most of the materials we use are made of plastics. From car chassis to food containers, these materials revolutionized the world; but are they inocuos? Recent studies demonstrate that they release toxins, such as BPA, when they're exposed to high temperatures (Gonzales 2011, p.62). This fact creates a conflict within our society in terms of health issues and environmental problems. The goal of our project is to inactivate the toxins and facilitate the cleaning of residual water and polluted water bodies. The idea is to transform a bacteria with plasmids containing the human genes TBG and TTR which will produce transport proteins. This proteins would bind to toxins released by plastics (BPA, phthalates, PCB, PBDE) bioaccumulation them in order to facilitate their removal.
