The cost of growing the bacteria with our plasmids is fairly straightforward and depends on the quantity we need to grow. Research needs to be carried out into how much of our new bacteria is needed to detect a certain quantity of oxybenzone before being used up. While the cost does depend on the amount manufactured, some general costs required for our project are listed below:
The next hurdle would be to distribute the bacteria into cartridges where sample water can be added and allowed to grow for an hour or so before the fluorescence reading is taken to detect the level of oxybenzone. This portable and disposable cartridge system would allow our platform to be used in the field. Otherwise, samples need to be sent to a lab with our bacteria in it to test the level of oxybenzone.
Mass production and distribution is a challenge for the future of our device. Since our device is not marketed towards the general public, production of our device is dependent on demand and whether or not technology companies will be willing to take on the burden and costs of mass production of our oxybenzone detector. While we are making efforts to ease this burden, such as using materials that are easier to mass produce, this is still a challenge that we would have to overcome.
One of the primary challenges of our project was incorporating and inducing expression of elements of a eukaryotic cell into our prokaryotic device. OxyBANzone relies on the use of an estrogen receptor, which is not found in prokaryotic organisms, but we chose to use a prokaryotic chassis as they are cheaper to commercialize and mass produce. To address this issue, we added a gene encoding the human estrogen receptor to our plasmid along with DNA sequences (like Pribnow box) to optimize functioning in a prokaryotic cell.
Finally, another challenge lies in correlating the light intensity exhibited by the GFP fluorescence to concentration of oxybenzone. We need to see how the initial levels of GFP fluorescence is in comparison to our controls, which is seawater without oxybenzone or estrogen in it. If the fluorescence is too similar, it will be very difficult to identify the differences in concentrations. Therefore, we would be unable to determine the exact level of oxybenzone in the water. This issue could also be potentially fixed by switching to a different fluorescence protein with absorption wavelength far from the average profile present in natural seawater.
The end users for our project are marine scientists and others who are studying oxybenzone’s impact on the ocean. Our project will be helpful to them because it will allow them to see which parts of the ocean have oxybenzone in greater concentrations. Without our project, scientists will face many challenges when testing oxybenzone in water, such as the costs of expensive lab machinery, as well as limited access to lab equipment in more rural areas where coral exists. With our device, many scientists can save time and money, and will be able to get more immediate results. We acknowledge that our team may not have the resources to get rid of oxybenzone from the ocean, but we aim to make the process easier for other scientists that may be able to. It can also raise awareness about where coral reef conservation actions are necessary. Our project is also geared towards everyday people, so that they can be more aware of what is in the water around them. Therefore, for the future, we plan to modify our project so that it can be used to test both pool water and other bodies of water (such as sewers), so pool owners and wastewater treatment plants can also make use of our project.