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PROJECT'S INTEREST

• Heavy metals, environmental and health issues

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• Our team contacted a number of experts in order to think about what problems caused by nickel could be found in society. This step led us to a feasible and useful project. We are thankful for the technical and scientific information given by :
  
  

  • Michèle OTTMANN, virologist (P3 et P4) associate professor of Biosecurity at the University Lyon I.
  • Lydie NEMAUSAT, assignment manager at FRAPNA-Rhône, water treatment plant of Pierre Benite.
    (http://www.frapnarhone.org / lydie.nemausat@frapna.org)
  • Adeline KISSANE, water quality manager in Grand Lyon.
  • Marc BOOGAERTS, health executive in the dialysis center at Clinic of Tonkin, Villeurbanne.
  • Baptiste LAUBIE, associate professor, LRGP, Université of Lorraine (CNRS 7274).

  
  Our project concerns environmental, industrial, health, social and humanitarian aspects.

  
  
  

  Why are we struggling against heavy metals?
  
  First of all, you must know heavy metals are defined as natural metallic elements with a volume density below 5g/cm, like lead, zinc, cadmium or nickel. It is well known that heavy metals are naturally present in water, air and ground in tiny concentrations (a few ppb). However, human activities contribute to spreading them in the environment (nickel is commonly used to make coins or orthodontic braces for example), leading to abnormally high concentrations in the ecosystems. As you may know, heavy metals aren’t biodegradable and accumulate in alive organisms, becoming more and more toxic.

  
  
  
  • Environmental issues:
    
    

    a) CurLy’on could enable purification plants to filter the nickel present in water, purifying it.
    Nature, plants and algae are damaged by rain that contain high levels of nickel. To understand environmental issues at a city scale, our team visited a water treatment plant to know more about the controls of heavy metals in the water. Astonishingly, we found out there is no control of heavy metals' concentration, so these pollutants are absorbed and eliminated in sludge. Nickel is therefore released in the environment and can be found in the water we use.

    
    
    

    b) CurLy’on gives the possibility of chelating nickel that could be recycled afterwards.
    As far as recycling is concerned, nickel stocks don’t exceed sixty years. These stocks are present in Australia, Russia, Canada, New Zealand, Cuba. 60% are used to create inox. Protecting stocks and improving their use is necessary. Nowadays, nickel is recycled at 55%.
    In France, there are some Nickel directed research projects (Labex Ressources 21 with Baptiste Laubie) that aim at studying strategic elements and the recycling process. Nickel has a big economic importance and it is necessary to focus on news ways of stocking it considering its impact on the biosphere.

    
    

    c) CurLy’on purifies water used in food-processing and would be really useful in a humanitarian context.
    What’s more, by carrying heavy metals in the food chain, water plays a key role in pollution and a serious challenge to eliminate heavy metals pollution. That’s why we chose to focus on this special issue. Our final goal is to respect European norms (especially the article L330/43 from 5 December 1998). This norm states that nickel concentrations must not exceed 20 µg/L in drinkable water and that 0% of modified DNA or proteins must be found in water. In a humanitarian context, our project is really necessary to cleanse water.

    
    
    
  • Health issues:
    
    

    a) Nickel risks.
    Nickel exposure in particular, especially in industrial and occupational settings, can present significant health hazards. Firstly, allergy to nickel is something that has become more and more important recently, mainly due to the introduction of inexpensive jewelry where one of the underlying metals is nickel. 10-12% of the female population and 6% of the male population are believed to experience an allergy to nickel, caused by nickel salts that are formed by sweat in contact with nickel. Secondly, nickel is one of many carcinogenic metals known to be an environmental and occupational pollutant. It has been connected with increased risk of lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurological deficits, developmental deficits in childhood, and high blood pressure. Finally, nickel has been identified as a toxin that can lead to infertility, miscarriage, birth defects, and nervous system defects. All in all, nickel is suspected, on the one hand, to severely disrupt enzyme action and regulation and, on the other hand, to contribute to a high amount of oxidative stress.

    
    

    b) Curly’on improves renal dialysis.
    We were very concerned about renal impairment and dialysis. In the past, some intoxication problems arose and there is still a risk for dysfunctional renal cases. We visited a dialysis center to learn about this treatment and patient perception. Dialysis protocol requires sterilized water. The dialysis center regulations include once a month, a physical chemistry analysis search for heavy metals in the system. During the last decades, inox water pipes of machines used for water distribution were changed and are now made of PEX (cross-linked polyethylene). This could restrict nickel propagation but our project makes possible to respect regulations without replacing the system, reducing costs. European pharmacopoeia partially mentions heavy metal issues and doesn't have any information about nickel. Also, since no specific tests are described in it, our project CurLy'on comes up with a new solution for pharmaceutical tests.

  
  
  
  
  

  Are there any available methods to eliminate Nickel ?
  
  There are two main techniques:
  - Inverse osmosis can be used for small heavy metal concentration elimination. However it isn’t very efficient and in aerobic conditions, metallic oxides can clog membranes.
  - Ionic resins that are able to retain divalent cations.

  Nevertheless these methods remain expensive and complicated to set up so our goal was to develop a cheaper alternative, that could be used by anyone.

  
  

  
  
  
  

  So how can our filter be used ?
  

  
  
  

  Two main fields are especially targeted:

  
  

  • The metalworking and chemical industries release waste water that contains 10 to 100 times more nickel than river water. Despite those effluents being transferred to water treatment plants and transformed into sewage sludge, most of the metals particles are not eliminated. Considering that the sludge is then used for agriculture and farming, such pollution leads to risks of food contamination. Following this idea, we visited water treatment and water purification plants to consider the possibility of using our system for decontaminating water from the environment. It appeared that, despite heavy metals being considered as environmental issues, no technique was developed to decontaminate water from them. Water plants often monitor heavy metal concentrations, but the only thing they can do is to stop pumping water when the rates are too high. However, they set out the argument that heavy metal pollution comes mainly from the degradation of residential water pipes (as opposed to public water pipes), that are commonly made out of zinc or lead.

    
    

  • That leads us to our second target... households who drink the potentially contaminated water. Nowadays, the cost to replace all lead pipelines in France is estimated to be 15 billion euros, which isn’t affordable for the owners. The idea we came up with was to screw our filter directly to the tap in residential areas.
    
    

  Secondly, our filter can improve medical techniques such as dialysis. Indeed, the water used in dialysis often contains nickel coming from the stainless steel tube in which it is carried. The risk is then to transfer the metal particles into the blood of patients.

  
  

  But we mustn’t forget that water pollution by heavy metals is a real health issue all over the world.

  In our countries, the pollution can be caused by a leak of chemical or metalworking purification circuits industries.

  In developing countries, the access to the technological means to purify polluted water is sometimes limited. Considering this, we met a person in charged of water-related humanitarian projects in hygiene and sanitation. He seemed interested by our biofilter, as it was a cheap method and nothing had already been developed in poor countries to deal with heavy metals pollution. Moreover, he could easily imagine that people wouldn’t be as skeptic as in Europe regarding the fact that it’s a GMO product.

  
  
  

  What about the biosafety of our filter ?
  
  
  

  We didn't put aside the safety issues regarding our project. That's why we met Michelle Ottoman, virologist and professor of biosafety at the University Lyon I, who accepted to answer our questions, as summarized in the interview below :

  

  
  

• CurLy'on in 2030?

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• Through a short story, we showed how our project might be adapted in the future. Here is the :

  cStraw Project

  
  

  Chapter 1

  
  

  
  Stockholm, 2030.
  A meeting was being held at the Nobel museum. Outside, a crowd -which is rare in Stockholm- was waiting for the results. The crowd was separated in two colors: people in red, and people in green. Green almost occupied the whole square in front of the museum, with just one tiny red spot alienated and cornered on the edge.
  “It’s out! It passed!”
  For just a second, nobody talked nor moved. A psychologist would explain that it takes some time for a human being to process mind-blowing news and that if they are bad news, nothing comes but anger. So, after the silent second, the green exploded.
  “You’re destroying the planet!” people screamed.
  “I’ll kill you! I’LL KILL YOU ALL!” people cursed.
  “No, no, they must be mistaken. They are just kidding.” people denied.
  “&@#^*(*&^$” people called their friends on the other side of the world, in all kinds of languages.
  And the people in red you ask? They were long gone. They disappeared the moment of the breaking news. They escaped from the anger because otherwise they would have become the target.
  
  

  Chapter 2

  
  

  
  “What’s this daddy?”
  “It’s our planet, Earth.”
  “What’s the yellow and brown part?”
  “It’s the land, son.”
  “And the gray part?”
  “It’s the sea.”

  
  

  Chapter 3

  
  

  
  “Welcome back! For those who just joined us, we’re talking about the recently approved project, Project cStraw. Inspired by an ancient project in 2014, in which a straw-like system was developed to purify water with genetically modified bacteria. Project cStraw is about to place hundreds of thousands of gigantic ‘straws’ in the sea all over the world in order to depollute the ocean by soaking in heavy metal. This idea was refuted by numberless groups and people for various reasons but just yesterday, it’s officially begun. First of all, we have the famous marine biologist Mr. Ian Crozier online, let’s hear his opinion. Mr. Crozier, this project sounds like an extreme measure, is it really necessary?”
  “I can’t speak for the Project cStraw, but the situation of the sea water is really severe. People used to call the Earth ‘the blue diamond’, but as we all know the sea is no longer blue. Now the greyish water is not only hideous but also very harmful. The pollution is literally affecting every country in the world. All sea based industries have been paralyzed for years now. The main cause is heavy metal pollution, which is known for its carcinogenic properties. Here is a photo of a swordfish that I dissected last week. You can see the inside is almost completely covered with all kinds of tumors and the majority of its organs are not functional. The same thing could just as easily happen to humans. So if it were up to me, I’d say we must save the ocean now and it’s already too late.”
  “Despite the disturbing image, very thorough pieces of background information. Thank you Mr. Crozier. Oh, we just got our next expert guest online, Ms. Priya Diego, professor of sociology. Priya, how are you? You look as fabulous as always!”
  “Thank you Mr. Rivers. But unfortunately the situation is quite the opposite.”
  “How’s that?”
  “Several protests have taken place in the USA, Canada, Russia, China and almost all European countries. Honestly the society has never been this fragile in many decades. The Project cStraw is like a moral nuclear bomb provoking critical and even aggressive emotion from people all over the world.”
  “Even though it’s kinda out there, I have to ask: why do you think this project can cause such a chaos?”
  “Actually it’s not a stupid question at all. Problems exist in various aspects of society. One big chunk is coming from religious groups who have been protesting against GMO products for ages. The most aggressive of them are calling this project ‘the release of the Kraken’. Another major player in this riot is fear. People worry that bacteria contamination might turn the sea ecosystem upside-down. A rumor of the ‘straw’ being a model of a new biochemical weapon is heating the overwhelming concerns too. Some people also believe that the project is a political tool for big countries to interfere and even control the sovereignty of some smaller countries since the latter have neither the power nor the technique to carry out the project.”
  “Thank you Priya. Now let’s hear Mr. George Mihalic, one of the senior engineers of the project, talk about the technique they’re about to use. Mr. Mihalic, using massive amount of bacteria sounds terrifying, doesn’t it?”
  “I can’t understand where this enormous fear comes from. For me, this technique is completely safe. You see, it’s a simple idea of a C-terminal fusion of the csgA gene. We added a DNA sequence coding for a polyHis tag so the CsgA protein will have the ability to chelate metal as it’s a basic building block of the bacteria’s curli, thus automatically displayed on the surface…”
  “Sorry Mr. Mihalic, I’ll have to interrupt you here. Not only am I feeling a bit lost but this news also just came in. Our field reporter Jessica is now in Paris and just sent us this footage.”
  “But I haven’t finished yet. This technique is perfectly safe because the bacteria will be killed by programming…”
  “Cut!” The producer shouts. “Good job everyone, we’ll be back in 30.”

  
  

  On the screen, a video clip is playing. A woman holding a banner is sitting in front of the Louvre, two policemen are trying to move her away. After a few moments, things turn physical but the woman still won’t leave. The banner says “Devil’s winning!”

  
  

  Chapter 4

  
  

  
  “Humankind fears a lot of things, but humankind is never scared of stepping forward. We invented fire to chase away darkness. We invented space shuttles to conquer the moon. We invented computers to free our mind so we can think further and wider. By taking every step, a part of our fear has vanished. I know lots of you don’t like this project. I don’t like it either. But it has to be done because the only thing that drags us back is nothing but fear. We have protested, we have debated, we even have had physical conflicts. But today, they shall all stop. Today is about a brand new step. It’s a step towards the past, where there’s less pollution and more lives. It’s also a step towards the future, where we, a fragile species without sharp claws or poisoned teeth, keep living on this planet with less fear and more understanding.”

  
  

  One week after the project cStraw was approved, 50 drones dropped 500 ‘straws’ into the north Atlantic in the US territory. One week later, the president of the US gave this speech on an aircraft and jumped into the water.

  
  

• Prototype

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• Our team created a pedagogical object, a CsgA structure, with a 3D printer for popularization of Curly’on and more than that, synthetic biology. You will see it for the first time during our oral presentation in Boston.

  
  

  We think that it is important for students in science to understand new engineering processes like 3D printer insofar as it is more and more present in the biotechnological field.