Team:York

From 2014.igem.org

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/***
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Minimal header: removes the search bar and header image and readjusts font colours in the menus.
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Thanks a lot to the 2011 Brown-Stanford and 2012 Lethbridge iGEM teams for snippets of their code!
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Check out their wikis at:
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https://2011.igem.org/Team:Brown-Stanford
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https://2012.igem.org/Team:Lethbridge
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***/
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/* END MINIMAL HEADER */
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</style></head>
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<body>
<body>
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<img class="banner" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/5/5f/York_Logo.png">
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<div id="container">
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<h2><br><br><b>To celebrate iGEM’s 10th Anniversary and the upcoming Giant Jamboree we, the University of York team, wanted to focus on a global problem that affects millions of people in the world. Inspired by the ecological disaster of Portman Bay, Spain that lead to the release of up to 50 million tons of mining tailings into the Mediterranean Sea over 30 years, we aim to develop an effective treatment for the waste produced by the mining industry that has already been released.</b><br/><br/>                                                                                                                                   <br><br><b>We have found sulfates and heavy metals such as cadmium to be the most abundant and problematic compounds in the affected areas. The goal of our project is to engineer a strain of Escherichia coli to produce phytochelatins -binding metal peptides produced by plants, yeasts and others- in a metal-sensitive way to sequester the metal ions. In order to do so we plan to overexpress modified versions of endogenous E. coli enzymes that will enhance the yield of phytochelatins as well as the uptake of sulfates and the metals in question.</b><br/><br/>                                                           <br><br><b>We will work on parts already present in the library and submit new ones both natural and synthetic ones contribution this way to improve the BioBricks catalogue. Moreover, the University of York 2014 team could be the first stone for a toolkit for targeting and sequestering specific metals in soil in a bioremediation context.</b> <br/><br/>
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<div id="header">
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</h2>
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<img id="optbanner" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/e/e0/York_Optimisedbanner.png">
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<div class="social">
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<div id="navmenu">
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<a href="http://www.twitter.com/igemyork">
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<ul class="yorknav">
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<img class="social" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/1/14/York_Twitter.png"></a>
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<li class="yorknav"><a href="#" class="yorknav">Home</a></li>
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<a href="http://www.igemyork.tumblr.com">
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<li class="yorknav"><a href="#" class="yorknav">Team</a></li>
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<img class="social" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/8/8c/York_Tumblr.png"></a>
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<li class="yorknav"><a href="#" class="yorknav">Profile</a></li>
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<a href="mailto:igem.york.2014@gmail.com">
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<li class="yorknav"><a href="#" class="yorknav">Project</a></li>
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<img class="social" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2014/3/3a/York_Mail.png"></a>
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<li class="yorknav"><a href="#" class="yorknav">Parts</a></li>
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<li class="yorknav"><a href="#" class="yorknav">Modelling</a></li>
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<li class="yorknav"><a href="#" class="yorknav">Notebook</a></li>
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<li class="yorknav"><a href="#" class="yorknav">Safety</a></li>
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<li class="yorknav"><a href="#" class="yorknav">Attributions</a></li>
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</ul>
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<div id="contently">
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<h2>Welcome to the beautiful City of York! </h2><br>
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<p>We're the 2014 iGEM team for the University of York, UK. In just 50 years, the University has become one of the top in the UK. We think this is because of its passion and dedication towards each of its subjects; something we share! Our team is made up of 20 undergraduates from a range of disciplines, as well as our two supervisors.<br><br>
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For this year’s project, we decided to get ideas from real time problems. We took a case study of Portman Bay in Spain, close to the home of one of our team members.<br><br></p>
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<h3>Our Project</h3>
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<p>Portman Bay is an area in South-east Spain. It is about 10 x 5 km and contains one of the highest densities of galena concentrations in Spain. Open pit mining for galena (Pb-Zn) and sphalerite (ZnS) began in the 1960s. Pyrate (FeS2) also taken as a product for industrial production of sulphuric acid. <br><br>
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The mining carried out was open-pit. This meant that the minerals were blasted from the ground using explosives. The rock collected was then crushed, milled, and processed in a plant. The processing involved separating the useful minerals (concentrates) from the rest (tailings) through a process called froth flotation. The concentrates could then be sent to the smelter while the tailings were disposed of. The tailings can make up 95% of the original material. Usually the tailings will be disposed of in a specially designed impoundment plant. <br><br>
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However, in Portman Bay, there was no room for an impoundment plant to be built. At the time, this problem was got around, simply by pumping the waste from the plant straight into the bay. Between the years 1957 and 1990 when it was finally shut down, 50 million tons of tailings were pumped into the bay.<br><br>
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The separation processes at the Portman Bay plant were not 100% efficient and though some pyrite was removed for industrial use, the content of pyrite in the tailings exceeded 10%. Small but significant quantities of the other minerals being mined also ended up in the tailings. The tailings themselves also contain high concentrations of metals known to be toxic including zinc, lead and arsenic. The combination of pyrate with the other sulphates causes serious problems as they react to produce environmentally hazardous products. The layers of rock underneath Portman bay are rich in carbonate and this reacts to consume some but not all of the sulphuric acid produced.<br><br>
 +
Studies in the area show the serious impacts this is having on the local wildlife. The main problems are caused by the leaching of metals from the soil. Fish in the area accumulate the highest lead, mercury and arsenic levels, and mussels, the highest lead, cadmium and mercury levels on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Biodiversity is suffering as many larval species cannot develop properly in the environment. Marine communities are becoming overwhelmed by the few species able to survive and the future ecological impacts are unknown.<br><br></p>
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Revision as of 16:35, 26 August 2014

Welcome to the beautiful City of York!


We're the 2014 iGEM team for the University of York, UK. In just 50 years, the University has become one of the top in the UK. We think this is because of its passion and dedication towards each of its subjects; something we share! Our team is made up of 20 undergraduates from a range of disciplines, as well as our two supervisors.

For this year’s project, we decided to get ideas from real time problems. We took a case study of Portman Bay in Spain, close to the home of one of our team members.

Our Project

Portman Bay is an area in South-east Spain. It is about 10 x 5 km and contains one of the highest densities of galena concentrations in Spain. Open pit mining for galena (Pb-Zn) and sphalerite (ZnS) began in the 1960s. Pyrate (FeS2) also taken as a product for industrial production of sulphuric acid.

The mining carried out was open-pit. This meant that the minerals were blasted from the ground using explosives. The rock collected was then crushed, milled, and processed in a plant. The processing involved separating the useful minerals (concentrates) from the rest (tailings) through a process called froth flotation. The concentrates could then be sent to the smelter while the tailings were disposed of. The tailings can make up 95% of the original material. Usually the tailings will be disposed of in a specially designed impoundment plant.

However, in Portman Bay, there was no room for an impoundment plant to be built. At the time, this problem was got around, simply by pumping the waste from the plant straight into the bay. Between the years 1957 and 1990 when it was finally shut down, 50 million tons of tailings were pumped into the bay.

The separation processes at the Portman Bay plant were not 100% efficient and though some pyrite was removed for industrial use, the content of pyrite in the tailings exceeded 10%. Small but significant quantities of the other minerals being mined also ended up in the tailings. The tailings themselves also contain high concentrations of metals known to be toxic including zinc, lead and arsenic. The combination of pyrate with the other sulphates causes serious problems as they react to produce environmentally hazardous products. The layers of rock underneath Portman bay are rich in carbonate and this reacts to consume some but not all of the sulphuric acid produced.

Studies in the area show the serious impacts this is having on the local wildlife. The main problems are caused by the leaching of metals from the soil. Fish in the area accumulate the highest lead, mercury and arsenic levels, and mussels, the highest lead, cadmium and mercury levels on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Biodiversity is suffering as many larval species cannot develop properly in the environment. Marine communities are becoming overwhelmed by the few species able to survive and the future ecological impacts are unknown.

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