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From 2014.igem.org

PROJECT

SAFETY

HUMAN PRACTICE

NOTEBOOK

JUDGING

TEAM

 

ABSTRACT

As a result of industrialization, heavy metal pollution has become a serious problem in both developing and developed countries throughout the world. Among those different kinds of heavy metal, copper can be extremely toxic to human body. The excessive cellular amount of Cu ions can readily interact with oxygen, resulting in the generation of hydroxyl radicals which lead to harm. The typical disease caused by copper is called Wilson Disease, which has become a world concern. A rotating biological contactor (RBC) is a biofilm-based reactor technology widely used for wastewater treatment. In our program, we combine heavy metal meditation with RBC and developed a toolkit able to gathering Cu ions in the polluted water, degrading the cyanide, detoxifying the fluoride and at the same time suggesting whether the water is safety in terms of copper amount. Our bacteria stands out with the character of accumulating everything in favor and eliminating things with hostility, which is similar to a famous Chinese historical figure called Cao Mengde.