Difference between revisions of "Team:Ionis Paris/Air pollution"

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                             <h1>Project Genesis</h1>
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                             <h1>State of the Art</h1>
 
                              
 
                              
 
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                               <p>Quantifly is born from the ambitions and the will of the biologists to create a biological tool that would answer a problematic that would have a meaning for us. Living in Paris, and with the recent COP21 conference that took place, we were concerned with the pollution levels of our city and it was pretty obvious to us that developing a solution (or part of it) to this problem was what we wanted to do in the iGEM competition.</p>   
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                               <p>The iGEM IONIS 2016 team was created shortly after the COP21 conference that took place in Paris, France, in 2015. In the context of environmental measures to prevent further environment pollution and public health impact, we tried to conduct a survey about air pollution and its whereabouts.</p>   
 
              
 
              
                               <p>We went through different brainstorms to develop the idea of a pollution prevention tool. What we firstly determined was the fact that we wanted to create a multidisciplinary project in order to use the strength of a multi-skills team. We then agreed to realise our project in the environment and electronics/informatics domains. Over one brainstorm, we evoked a bacterial paint, a bacterial calculator, information encoded in bacteria DNA (which was discarded because of our little means at our disposal regarding the task). We rather focused on pollution which is a well-documented issue and had a reflexion on which type of pollution: we firstly thought of endocrine disruptors which we realised were too complex pollutants for bacterial applications, as we would have to create genetic circuits in order to make bacteria able to metabolize such compounds.</p>
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                               <p>Air pollution is characterized by the presence of gas and particles in the outside air with harmful impact on human health and/or on the environment. Those pollutants come from natural phenomena (volcanic eruption, organic matter decomposition, forest fire) as well as human activity (industry, transport, farming and residential heating) (insert source 1).</p>
  
<p>After performing several researches about previous iGEM detection-based projects, we came to the conclusion that bioluminescence wasn’t used at its full potential in the competition as it is in the professional world in scientific assays. We decided to focus on pollution detection with bioluminescence and its implementation in an integrated system.</p>
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<p>It is known that pollution has harmful effects on human health. According to the world health organization (WHO), 7 million premature deaths are due to atmospheric pollution, which equals to one eighth of the world annual deaths. The cost of those premature deaths in the WHO countries is $ 1.431 trillion per year.</p>
  
<p>In addition, because we wanted to show how biology would not be only a matter of theoretical and laboratory work, we tried to think the engineer way and we developed the Quantifly project, a multidisciplinary project that would combine biology and other disciplines in a concrete and innovative project. With this idea, different students from the IONIS group joined the team, each one bringing different competences in different fields such as marketing, communication, design, informatics, physics and of course biology. This diversity in the competences and areas of expertise in our team has allowed us to develop this exciting project that Quantifly is.</p>
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<p>In France, there are 3.5 million asthmatic people, 50 000 people suffering from serious respiratory deficiency, 150 000 deaths of patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases caused by air pollution (insert source 2). In addition of public health issues, those pollutants can have a harmful effect on the environment as they acidify waters and soils and decrease vegetal growth. Those effects trigger a decline in agricultural yield and alter aquatic ecosystems.</p>
  
<p>The iGEM competition being based on the open source system and the establishment and use of any knowledge, we are working on our project in a seemingly free-science based laboratory: La Paillasse, Paris, France. We developed a partnership with this biohack space, which values are the sharing and the creation of open source knowledge, as well as the development of scientific or artistical projects. This biohack space has the ambition to give opportunities to innovative ideas, thus by trying to adopt a different way of thinking, developing innovation through open source science, which brings support from official entities such as the French government or other institutions.</p>
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<p> insert image</p>
  
<p>La Paillasse has different objectives and key points which can be resumed in different values:
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<p>Atmospheric pollution is an accumulation of complex phenomena. To be understood as a whole, local and regional emissions, meteorological conditions, transport as well as pollutant transformation must be considered (insert source 3).</p>
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        <li><p>The concepts of liberty of the community it gathers to do whatever is thought as a project</p></li>
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<p>Despite the fact that air pollution hardly contains over 2% VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds – Figure 10), the impact of those pollutants on health and environment is major. Volatile organic compounds can be defined as an organic chemical with a high vapour pressure (over 0.01 kPa). Those primary pollutants originate from fuel evaporation, car traffic, industrial processes, heating system in residential area, domestic use of solvent but also from vegetation. They have a role in secondary particle formation and ozone formation.</p>
        <li><p>To emphasise the importance of experimentation</p></li>
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        <li><p>Opening to non-scientific projects to create emulation and maintain creativity</p></li>
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    </ul>
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</p>
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<p>La Paillasse has put to our use laboratory material that are necessary for microbiology and molecular biology. The team can use freely hoods, centrifuges, and consumables to work on its project. This way of doing fits the DIY (Do It Yourself) spirit of the biohack spaces, and it allows us to manipulate with machines that we couldn’t afford otherwise.</p>
 
<p>La Paillasse has put to our use laboratory material that are necessary for microbiology and molecular biology. The team can use freely hoods, centrifuges, and consumables to work on its project. This way of doing fits the DIY (Do It Yourself) spirit of the biohack spaces, and it allows us to manipulate with machines that we couldn’t afford otherwise.</p>
  
<p>This partnership with La Paillasse is the base of Quantifly, and we thought it is the perfect place to realise our iGEM project and all its whereabouts.</p>
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<p>VOCs are a preoccupation to the major actors of the energy field such as Total, Shell or Bouygues as well as governments and public institutions. They are leaders in research on pollution and are producing data that is essential for a better comprehension of how pollutants can impact ecosystems and their interactions with our society, being agriculture, fuel production, or industrial development.</p>
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<p>VOCs can be sorted into three categories:</p>
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Revision as of 08:47, 11 October 2016

The iGEM IONIS 2016 team was created shortly after the COP21 conference that took place in Paris, France, in 2015. In the context of environmental measures to prevent further environment pollution and public health impact, we tried to conduct a survey about air pollution and its whereabouts.

Air pollution is characterized by the presence of gas and particles in the outside air with harmful impact on human health and/or on the environment. Those pollutants come from natural phenomena (volcanic eruption, organic matter decomposition, forest fire) as well as human activity (industry, transport, farming and residential heating) (insert source 1).

It is known that pollution has harmful effects on human health. According to the world health organization (WHO), 7 million premature deaths are due to atmospheric pollution, which equals to one eighth of the world annual deaths. The cost of those premature deaths in the WHO countries is $ 1.431 trillion per year.

In France, there are 3.5 million asthmatic people, 50 000 people suffering from serious respiratory deficiency, 150 000 deaths of patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases caused by air pollution (insert source 2). In addition of public health issues, those pollutants can have a harmful effect on the environment as they acidify waters and soils and decrease vegetal growth. Those effects trigger a decline in agricultural yield and alter aquatic ecosystems.

insert image

Atmospheric pollution is an accumulation of complex phenomena. To be understood as a whole, local and regional emissions, meteorological conditions, transport as well as pollutant transformation must be considered (insert source 3).

Despite the fact that air pollution hardly contains over 2% VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds – Figure 10), the impact of those pollutants on health and environment is major. Volatile organic compounds can be defined as an organic chemical with a high vapour pressure (over 0.01 kPa). Those primary pollutants originate from fuel evaporation, car traffic, industrial processes, heating system in residential area, domestic use of solvent but also from vegetation. They have a role in secondary particle formation and ozone formation.

La Paillasse has put to our use laboratory material that are necessary for microbiology and molecular biology. The team can use freely hoods, centrifuges, and consumables to work on its project. This way of doing fits the DIY (Do It Yourself) spirit of the biohack spaces, and it allows us to manipulate with machines that we couldn’t afford otherwise.

VOCs are a preoccupation to the major actors of the energy field such as Total, Shell or Bouygues as well as governments and public institutions. They are leaders in research on pollution and are producing data that is essential for a better comprehension of how pollutants can impact ecosystems and their interactions with our society, being agriculture, fuel production, or industrial development.

VOCs can be sorted into three categories: