Our team is dedicated to finding a solution for eutrophication in seas. Our product, the 3D printed filter, will be attached to a removable part of a pipeline through which pollutants end up in the sea. To clean the filter, we can detach the part with the filter and then reconnect it to the rest of the pipe. The contaminated water will pass through the filter and because of the E.Coli the nitrates will be reduced into nitrites.
As a team, we hope that eventually our product will be used all around the world. Whether that is by municipalities looking to improve the state of their cities, eco-aware organizations or private institutes that also want to improve the health of local coastlines affected by eutrophication. Additionally, we encourage organizations or individuals who are the source of the nitrogen and mineral containing substances to invest in our product in order to reduce their footprint on the ocean and strive for a healthier marine environment.
Using nirS enzymes expressed in E.coli. The problem of eutrophication is pretty visible in the Thermaikos gulf. Phytoplankton is an organism that is fed on nitrates, phosphates, and sulfates. However, we were not sure about what caused the problem and thus our wet lab team start researching immediately. With the help of our advisor and some informal conversations with scientists that worked in this area, we were able to determine that the main cause of eutrophication is the high levels of nitrates that were excessively feeding organisms such as phytoplankton. Because of the experience of our advisor that had worked again with this type of fertilizer, we were advised to use Pseudomonas azotoformans through which we found and isolated an enzyme called nitrate reductase. Nitrate reductase is the enzyme that catalyzes nitrate to nitrite(1) and thus achieves our goal of bringing the balance in the amounts of nitrates available for feeding. Moving forward we cloned nirS into an expression vector that then was embedded in E.coli.With that our idea started to get shape.