Why we chose IHP and how we achieved it
Reflection, responsibility, and responsiveness are the pillars of human practices. Due to the novelty of our project, we wanted to acknowledge potential limitations for our project by consulting experts. CyanoClean is a genetically engineered cyanobacteria designed to degrade organophosphate pesticides with a kill switch system for biocontainment. Upon reflection of our initial human practices work, we realized that the biggest challenge would be earning the public’s trust with respect to implementing a genetically modified organism (GMO) in wastewater treatment. With this in mind, we designed our cyanobacteria to be safe both inside and outside of the lab. Throughout this process, we conducted informational interviews with Dr. Barnabé and Dr. Villemur. Their valuable insights about our design and its real-world application shaped our project in many ways. We also reached out to Dr. Caron, who introduced us to the Real Time Technology Assessment, a framework that we used throughout our project to ensure our solution is ethically, environmentally, legally, and socially responsible.
How our interview with Dr. Barnabé shaped our project
Description of Dr. Barnabé
Dr. Barnabé gives insight on cyanobacterial toxicity and the importance of its removal after treatment.
In this interview we learned it is important to ensure our cyanobacteria are filtered out before the pesticide-free clean water is released into the environmental system.
Dr. Simon Barnabé*
*Professor at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
*Industrial Microbiologist
- Professor of chemistry, biochemistry, and physics at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
- Municipal Research Chair in Sustainable Cities
- Co-director of I’I2E3, L’Institut d’Innovations en Écomatériaux, Écoproduits et Écoénergies
- Industrial Research Chair in Environment and Biotechnology
- Joint Industrial Research Chair in Regional Bioeconomy and Bioenergy
- CentrEau researcher: one of the main researchers in water sciences
- Expert in phytoremediation
- Implicated in water and cities
Feedback Obtained:
- In this interview, we learned that we would like to ensure that our CyanoClean technology and its by-products are not more toxic than the parent compounds (Fenitrothion and Malathion).
- After reviewing several research papers, we confirmed that CyanoClean is safer than organophosphate pesticides and the by-products and that it can be used as a more sustainable alternative to current technologies.
- We gained the knowledge that our cyanobacteria would need to be removed after the kill switch is implemented. This step is necessary to remove any organic matter before sending the wastewater back into the environmental cycle. Dr. Barnabé advised us that this can be achieved through a simple filtration system, which would be incorporated into our implementation design.
Publications: ~48 in total
- Dr. Barnabé has many publications on topics such as biopesticides, wastewater treatments, sludge treatment, bioenergy, biomass, algar, industrial microbiology and much more. His great insight on such topics has helped us gain knowledge as we received critical feedback from an expert in this field.
- Some publications related to our project:
- Factors affecting the fatty acid profile of wastewater-grown-algae oil as feedstock for biodiesel [2021]
- Effect of environmental factors on the biomass and lipid production of microalgae grown in wastewaters [2019]
- Pre-treatment and bioconversion of wastewater sludge to value-added products—Fate of endocrine disrupting compounds [2008]
- Optimization of the proportions of four wastewaters in a blend for the cultivation of microalgae using a Mixture Design [2019]
- Cultivation of an algae-bacteria consortium in wastewater from an industrial park: Effect of environmental stress and nutrient deficiency on lipid production [2018]
How our interview with Dr. Villemur shaped our project
Description of Dr. Villemur
Dr. Villemur suggests alternatives to improve the implementation of the CyanoClean system.
In this interview, we discovered that the implementation of our technology is very crucial. Dr. Villemur highlighted challenges such as government regulations and the stigma behind GMOs. He suggested we look into industrial wastewater plant applications versus agricultural implementation. He also advised against the use of two different plasmids.
Dr. Richard Villemur*
*Professor at INRS
- Professor at Institut national de la recherche scientifique in the Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnology Research Center
- Member/Regular researcher at CentrEau
*Research Areas at CentrEau governance and management, nexus between uses and availability of water, water needs and uses of cities, water uses for primary production
- Expert in Microbial Ecology of Bioprocesses and Environmental Microbiology
Publications: ~385 in total
- Dr. Villemur has many interesting publications in areas such as molecular cloning, PCR, cloning, biotechnology, genetics, electrophoresis, sequencing, DNA and much more. His extensive research in such various topics resulted in great feedback for our project.
- Some publications related to our project:
- eDNA profiling of mammals, birds, and fish of surface waters by mitochondrial metagenomics: application for source tracking of fecal contamination in surface waters [2022]
- Fecal contamination of storm sewers: Evaluating wastewater micropollutants, human-specific Bacteroides 16S rRNA, and mitochondrial DNA genetic markers as alternative indicators of sewer cross connections [2018]
- Environmental Persistence in Surface Water of Human Mitochondrial DNA and Three Referenced Fecal Markers in Human Fecal Source Tracking Context [2022]
- Development and Evaluation of Multiplex PCR Assays for Rapid Detection of Virulence-associated Genes in Arcobacter Species [2015]
Feedback Obtained and changes potentially implemented:
- Thanks to Dr. Villemur’s advice, we learned that having two different plasmids might be too complex for the cyanobacteria to handle. With one plasmid conferring the degradation of OPPs and the other conferring the kill switch, if the cyanobacteria is not using one plasmid it may reject it. As suggested, we will potentially insert our genes of interest into the chromosome of the cyanobacteria, so that they will not be lost over generations.
- We understood that if we wanted to implement our CyanoClean technology, it could be difficult due to government regulations and the negative connotation of GMOs. Therefore Dr. Villemur suggested we look into industrial wastewater treatment plants instead of agricultural applications. He advised us of the biological treatment stage at which we could incorporate a tank with our cyanobacteria to degrade OPPs. Then it is a simple process to filter out the dead cyanobacteria before the water treatment moves to the next phase.
How our interview with Dr. Caron shaped our project
Description of Dr. Caron
Dr. Brandiff Caron*
*Professor at California Polytechnic State University
*Former Professor at Concordia University
- Lecturer Interdisciplinary Studies in Liberal Arts at California Polytechnic State University
- Former Instructor (assistant professor) in the Center for Engineering in Society
- Former Associate Chair with the Center for Engineering in Society at Concordia
Publications:
- Dr. Caron played a major role for the Real Time Technology Assessment of our project
- Implementing Experiential Education on Engineering and Society [2015]
- Navigating a Constitutional Moment: Reflections on Implementing Graduate Attributes in Canadian Engineering Education [2015]
- Models for Leadership in Curricular Innovation: Concordia’s Center for Engineering in Society [2014]
- With the help and advice of Dr. Caron, we were able to produce an integrated Real Time Technology Assessment (RTTA) throughout the development of CyanoClean. The RTTA goes into the depths of ethical, legal, social, and environmental implications. Dr. Caron was an invaluable advisor throughout the process and in highlighting the value of ethics in iGEM.
