IGEM:Imperial/2010/Water sanitation and cell population control
Water Sanitation and cell population control
- Detection system
- Treatment system
Detection system
Possible inputs:
- Pathogenic bacteria
(But Heidelberg did something similar to this in 2008...) If we can detect the N-acyl homoserine lactone produced by V. cholerae, we might be able to get a response from a downstream pathway?
- Protists
(E. histolytica causes dysentery and is ingested as cysts. Diamond et al (1972, 1979) researched two viruses which were able to lyse cells. Possible way of killing them? Or we could try to make the cysts aggregate and then remove them?)
- Viruses
- Heavy metals
(but cells must be immobilised/easy to remove)
- Chemicals
Have a look at this review for information about how some bacteria metabolise hydrocarbons!
I think our best bet here is to use the XylR protein, which is already in the parts registry. There's also the TodST protein which senses toluene. Both of these regulatory proteins are involved in degradation pathways of their respective compounds, and so we might be able to use something downstream to activate a response?
- VOCs
- Helminths
Possible outputs:
- Fluorescent proteins (colour depends on what is detected)
- Odor (smell depends on what is detected)
Treatment system
- System used depends on result from detection system
- Phage lysins for G +ve bacteria
- RNA interference
Population control
Use quorum sensing to keep the population below a threshold level
Biofilm or free bacteria?
Biofilm
- Could have mutually dependent bacteria, so that if one detaches, it can't survive without the other
- Higher throughput?
Free bacteria
- More applicable to domestic treatment?
