While most organisms see radiation as a hazard, natural melanized fungi have the capability of using radiation as an energy source to support their growth. While we currently aim to synthesize melanin in Saccharomyces cerevisiae in order to protect it from radiation, a step further would be to give this yeast the ability to convert radiation energy into metabolic energy. As S. cerevisiae is the most widely used yeast in cell factories, giving it an ability to use novel energy sources could open up many new possibilities for efficient bioproduction. The aim of this is to achieve a sustainable economy by replacing chemical production with bioproduction that has a lower impact on the climate.

We make a strong effort to contribute to quality education for various audiences as part of our iGEM journey. Providing quality and equitable education is always the goal of our workshops, public engagement events and educational collaborations.

We arranged scientific experiments in our workshops to inform people about our project and about scientific research in general in an interactive and entertaining way.

We carry our public engagement events out in three major languages in Estonia (Estonian, English, Russian) in order to give people the opportunity to learn about science in the language they feel most comfortable in.

We organized a workshop for Ukrainian refugees, who did not have access to quality education for a period after moving to Estonia.

As the nonrenewable energy sources are draining away and are causing climate change, humankind must use diverse ways for obtaining renewable energy. While nuclear power is one of the most efficient and safest ways, these plants are still dangerous in case of reactor meltdowns or leaks, just like in the Chernobyl or Fukushima disasters. Research has shown that melanized fungi have the ability to proliferate in the presence of radioactivity and that they even grow towards the soil particles that are contaminated with radionuclides to gradually engulf and destroy these particles (Zhdanova et al., 2002),(Zhdanova et al., 1991). Further, these yeasts also harvest the radiation energy. Our project of melanized Saccharomyces cerevisiae could be used in cleanup of radioactive contamination, because due to the wide selection of available tools for its genetic manipulation, it can be engineered to carry out specific purposes or to proliferate in distinct environments.

With the exponential increase in human population, we are overusing the resources on Earth. This had led to the idea to colonize another planet in order to reduce the burden on Earth. In such possible colonization, humankind needs resources to fulfill their nutritional needs. As S. cerevisiae is the most widely used species in eukaryotic cell factories, we believe that melanized yeast has great potential to be used as a basis for cell factories in space. It can be used to synthesize necessary components without the need for an atmosphere.

To address radioactive contamination of waterways we concentrate on drinking and salt water sources together. Thus we unite both SDGs together.

Water sources that are polluted by radiation are an issue that needs to be taken into consideration. Some water sources that are also used for drinking water contain many radionuclides such as Radon, Radium, Uranium and many more (Binesh et al., 2011), (Bonavigo et al., 2009). For example, Karachay lake, which is considered to be the most radioactive lake in the world, emits enough radiation in one hour to kill a person standing next to it (concentrations of 90Sr with 6.5 × 106 Bq L−1 and 137Cs with 1.6 × 107 Bq L−1)(Cochran et al., 1993), (Shuryak, 2018), (Atamanyuk et al., 2012). Research in Iran showed that in some parts of Mashhad city, public water contains 49.088± 0.004 Bq/L of Radon. This radiation causes the exposure of an adult’s stomach and lungs to 8.836 and 122.720 µSv annually, respectively (Mohammadi et al., 2014). Considering that people often depend on public water sources as drinking water, this could be a strong risk of cancer development. Whilst radioactive energy is a major threat against most living creatures’ health, we believe that melanized yeast can take a remarkable role in cleaning those sources since Saccharomyces cerevisiae is known to take up heavy metals including radiative particles such as Uranium ions (Saifuddin & Dinara, 2012). Using our engineered melanized fungi for this purpose could allow more efficient proliferation of yeast in such environments. This would not only help us achieve cleaner and healthier water sources for humans, but would also support marine biodiversity.

In the field of science and education, as in other aspects of life, there are still many inequalities that must be addressed.

Estonia_TUIT team has a goal of reducing inequalities in the STEM field to make it more open, welcoming and accessible for everyone. As part of our work on inclusivity this year, we are reaching out to students with special educational needs since their opportunities in STEM might not be equal to the majority of students. Our team is interviewing students with special educational needs via an online survey. We want to understand the challenges they face while pursuing science and listen to their suggestions on how to improve accessibility in STEM. Together we are hoping to find impactful solutions to reduce inequalities in STEM for students with special needs.

Throughout the iGEM season, we carried out several workshops for the general public. Because only 68.5% of people in Estonia speak Estonian as their native language, we performed our workshops in Estonian, English and Russian with the aim to give as many people as possible the opportunity to take part in the workshops.

In our experimental work we aimed to create a minimal amount of non-recyclable waste. Also, we carried out all experiments at as little scale as necessary to avoid needless spending of reagents and consumables.

Most widely used material for shielding from ionizing radiation is lead. While lead is an abundant and a recyclable material, it carries a very high health hazard to people involved in the production (Collivignarelli et al., 1986). For use in space, our yeast is intended to not require lead to protect it from radiation, as it is synthesizing melanin for protection. Furthermore, this yeast could possibly be used for shielding something else in minor exposure events. In one such example, the natural melanized fungi have been found to have a potential to be used as a self-replicating shielding material in space (Shunk et al., 2020).

As part of our work on inclusivity we organized a workshop for refugee children and their parents from Ukraine. Moving to another country to escape the war in Ukraine meant that refugee children could spend less time on learning and developing on their topics of interest. This resulted in inequality when it comes to having access to education and information. Our team made an effort to give Ukrainian children a possibility to learn about science and synthetic biology in an entertaining and interactive way. In this way they could acquire some new insights and get to know the world of synthetic biology while spending their time in an interesting way. By doing this we contributed to reducing inequalities when it comes to accessing science between refugee children and their peers in Estonia.

Our team also has some team members from both sides of the conflict: Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. We all denounce the actions of the Russian government and war in Ukraine and wholeheartedly wish for the invasion to stop and the annexations to be reverted.

Atamanyuk, N. I., Osipov, D. I., Tryapitsina, G. A., Deryabina, L. v., Stukalov, P. M., Ivanov, I. A., & Pryakhin, E. A. (2012). Characteristics of phytoplankton in lake karachay, a storage reservoir of medium-level radioactive waste. Health Physics, 103(1), 47–49. https://doi.org/10.1097/HP.0B013E318249BEBF

Binesh, A., Arabshahi, H., & Pourhabib, Z. (2011). Radioactivity and dose assessment of heavy radioactive pollution, radon and radium from water sources of 3 northern regions in Iran. International Journal of the Physical Sciences, 6(35), 7969–7977. https://doi.org/10.5897/IJPS11.1308

Bonavigo, L., Zucchetti, M., & Mankolli, H. (2009). Water Radioactive Pollution and Related Environmental Aspects. Journal of International Environmental Application & Science, 4, 357–363.

Cochran, T. B., Norris, R. S., & Suokko, K. L. (1993). RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINATION AT CHELYABINSK-65, RUSSIA. Annu. Rev. Energy Environ, 18, 507–535. www.annualreviews.org

Collivignarelli, C., Riganti, V., & Urbini, G. (1986). Battery lead recycling and environmental pollution hazards. Conservation & Recycling, 9(1), 111–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/0361-3658(86)90138-4

Mohammadi, S., Mowlavi, A. A., Binesh, A., Mowlavi, A., & Parvaresh, P. (2014). Measurement of heavy radioactive pollution: radon and radium in drinking water samples of Mashhad A phd program View project A Master degree program View project MEASUREMENT OF HEAVY RADIOACTIVE POLLUTION: RADON AND RADIUM IN DRINKING WATER SAMPLES OF MASHHAD. http://www.journalcra.com

Saifuddin, N., & Dinara, S. (2012). Immobilization of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae onto cross-linked Chitosan coated with magnetic nanoparticles for adsorption of Uranium (VI) ions. Advances in Natural and Applied Sciences, 6(2), 249–267.

Shunk, G. K., Gomez, X. R., & Averesch, N. J. H. (2020). A Self-Replicating Radiation-Shield for Human Deep-Space Exploration: Radiotrophic Fungi can Attenuate Ionizing Radiation aboard the International Space Station. BioRxiv, 2020.07.16.205534. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.16.205534

Shuryak, I. (2018). Modeling species richness and abundance of phytoplankton and zooplankton in radioactively contaminated water bodies. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 192, 14–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JENVRAD.2018.05.016

Zhdanova NN, Redchits TI, Lashko TN, Zheltonozhskii VA, Sadovnikov LV (2002) Destruction of radioactive particles by strains of Cladosporium cladosporoides (FRES.) de Vries. Mikrobiol Z. 64: 47–56.

Zhdanova NN, Lashko TN, Redchits TI, Vasilevskaia AI, Borisiuk LG, et al. (1991) The interaction of soil micromycetes with ‘‘hot’’ particles in a model system. Mikrobiol Zh. 53: 9–17.