Introduction

Our finite sources of clean water are evermore scarce. Agriculture, fuel spillages, deforestation, littering, to name a few, are jeopardizing our clean water. In Ghana, illegal mining activities for heavy metals have compromised freshwater ecosystems as toxic levels of heavy metals have not only been detected in water, but in fish as well as soil. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic poses another threat to clean water, endangering health and wellbeing. Plastic blocked water ways are a severe health hazard due to flooding and harbouring of waterborne diseases. Focusing on the Birim River in Ghana, heavy metal and plastic pollution are threatening the health of communities and the surrounding environment.

Our iGEM project aims to employ cell-free systems to implement synthetic biology. We believe our product, PETALUTION, can sustainably deliver synthetic biology-based solutions. Adopting a holistic approach to water health, we designed heavy metal biosensors, a bioremediation device for heavy metal sequestration, and an enzyme cocktail for PET biodegradation to make potential sources of commercially valuable materials, such as vanillin.

Our cell-free, safe, modular toolkit is just one example of how efforts in synthetic biology translate to progress regarding the Sustainable Development Goals. We hope our project can provide insights in the SDG 6: water and sanitation, and other SDGs including 3, 9, 12, 14, 17.

Main target: Goal 6 Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

We address the target of reducing pollution in water bodies and halving the amount of untreated wastewater by using proteins to pick up heavy metals present in water. Meanwhile, we hope to reduce the upstream production of PET plastic waste to mediate the microplastic pollution in water bodies.

We believe PETALUTION can also target the following SDGs

Goal 3 Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

We believe our work in the long run can meet the target of reducing poisoning, teratogenic and carcinogenic effects and mortality caused by both microplastic and heavy metal pollution. Even though the influence of microplastics to health has not been proven, it has been shown that viruses can attach on the microplastics and gain increased stability and dissemination [1].

Goal 9 Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

The silica immobilisation toolkit provides a good potential for the industry scale application. This method is easy and convenient to achieve and provides reusability and increased stability of the immobilised enzymes [2].

Goal 12 Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

Our project addresses the issue of excessive plastic waste production and heavy metal polluted water. The PET biodegradation device has the potential to promote PET circular economy and make the PET plastic usage more sustainable. Specifically, if more PET plastic waste is degraded into chemical molecules, less PET plastic wastes will be landfilled/disposed of in the natural environment. Meanwhile, it provides higher economic returns for PET plastics recycling company. Therefore, factories are willing to recycle more plastic from the community. Residents are more willing to recycle plastic for higher economic return. In the end, more plastic waste is degraded into chemical molecules

Goal 14 Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

We believe that our work is tailored to tackle the issue of marine pollution by heavy metals and microplastics, since those pollutants will end up spreading in the entire aqua system on earth.

Goal 17 Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

The formation of our team through partnership of universities in different parts of the world meets the target of partnering to achieve sustainable development goals. Our partnership has resulted to develop environmentally sound technologies

References

1. Moresco V, Charatzidou A, Oliver D, Weidmann M, Matallana-Surget S, Quilliam R. Binding, recovery, and infectiousness of enveloped and non-enveloped viruses associated with plastic pollution in surface water. Environmental Pollution. 2022;308:119594.
2. Kim S, Joo K Il, Jo BH, Cha HJ. Stability-Controllable Self-Immobilization of Carbonic Anhydrase Fused with a Silica-Binding Tag onto Diatom Biosilica for Enzymatic CO2 Capture and Utilization. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2020 Jun 17;12(24):27055–63. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsami.0c03804