Human Practices

2020

We began by looking to the community for inspiration. We started with local students, by sitting down with classes and having a discussion about the problem of DDT and different ways to deal with it. One idea that came from this discussion was the idea of a “bacteria that helps to eat pollution without damaging the environment”. And while the concept was modified over and over again this idea became the foundation for a project that would span the next 4 years.

2020 Alma iGEM team meeting with local students to discuss the problem of DDT pollution.

With the idea of a bacteria that removes DDT pollution from the environment, we set out to modify a bacteria strand to react to the presence of DDT. Our team wanted to hear advice directly from professionals in the field and figure out if this idea would be helpful or even feasible.

Our first discussion was with Dr. Amanda Harwood at Alma College. She is an expert in aquatic toxicology and has a PhD in zoology from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. While she thought our project idea seemed promising she gave us some insight on how to edit our design to have the most promising results.

2020 Alma iGEM team meeting with Dr. Amanda Harwood

Dr. Harwood told us that while the Pine River is certainly polluted with DDT, it is also polluted with derivatives of DDT which are causing the majority of the problems now. Dr. Harwood suggested that instead of targeting a DDT degradation pathway, our original plan, to instead create a biosensor that can detect DDT and derivative pollution. This would allow for professionals to make accurate risk assessments for a polluted area and allow us to incorporate DDT derivatives.

And thus our biosensor was born!

After our talk with Dr. Harwood we excitedly began our design process for our biosensor. Dr. Harwood suggested that we reach out to local Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) workers and see if our design showed any potential. We were able to meet with three EPA representatives working on the Pine River Superfund site and its recovery. Representatives Thomas Alcamo, Dianne Russell and Theo Von Wallmenich sat down to have this conversation with us and give us insight on how to best help them with Pine River recovery.

When presented with the idea of a faster, cheaper and more effective biosensor to detect pollution in the floodplains all three representatives were very excited and enthusiastic.

“I think this would be very, very useful for the EPA.”- Theo Von Wallmenich

The 3 representatives said that if completed and effective our biosensor could act as their new form of preliminary testing, searching potential areas for DDT and derivative pollution and providing effective risk assessment of an area, allowing the EPA to focus its resources on confirmed pollution sites and tackling the highest risk sites first.

EPA working with thermal equipment at St. Louis Superfund Site

The EPA suggested that our biosensor be able to have a detection threshold of 1-5ppm (parts per million), which would qualify this area as an “acceptable risk.” The EPA representatives say that if they are able to know if a sample is above or below this threshold, it would be very helpful in resource allocation. Another idea would be to have a higher threshold such as 40-50ppm, which would initiate an emergency response if a sample fell within this range. Discussion of a test that could give qualitative results on the amount of DDT (a sum of six metabolic forms) would be beneficial in being able to distinguish between forms, though this would not be necessary for an initial screen. This improvement to our biosensor would be used starting in a downstream site on the river and moving upstream where you are likely to see increasing concentrations of the pollutant. We have integrated this feedback into our expanded designs, creating circuits that detect different thresholds or discriminate against different types of xenoestrogens.

Another way our biosensor product would improve the EPA’s current processes would be through improving the cost associated with taking samples at superfund sites for analysis. Current tests are about $80 per sample and due to fees that include labor and shipping, the total cost is $240 per sample.

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See our cost analysisfrom 2020.

2021

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After the work done the previous year our team set our sights on improving our biosensor and getting more feedback from professionals.

We started the cycle by meeting with TriTerra, an environmental consulting company located in Alma Michigan. The company deals specifically with soil and water analysis on residential property, looking for dangerous pollutants that owners or residents of the property need to be aware of. Meeting with representatives from the company gave us some new insights on how to best create a project that can be easily used by as many people as possible.

TriTerra logo

TriTerra recommended changing our focus, instead of making our biosensor for professionals, we should aim to make our biosensor usable for the general public.

Our goal has always been to help our community and after doing research we agreed that the best way to help our community would be to make our biosensor accessible to the public!

The reason that we have this new shift in focus is because of the lack of communication and resources that have been given to the general public. This will be the first time residents can see and learn about the severity of the DDx pollution that otherwise has been swept under the rug. Being able to generate a streamline of easy technology and science for our affected audience will be the next step in remedying this tragedy. Our community needs us and we are looking forward to providing our synthetic biology that could change our world in Alma, Michigan.

2022

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With our new focus we aimed to finish our biosensor in a way to best benefit the community.

We started the cycle by competing in a design engineering workshop run by Michigan Colleges Alliance (MCA) and the Henry Ford Learning Institute. Our goal from this workshop was to center our biosensor design to be accessible to the general public and learn how to make our projects community centered for the future.

Michigan Colleges Alliance and Henry Ford Learning Institute logos

The workshop taught us a lot about community centered design and gave us the opportunity and resources to get feedback from our community. Through this workshop we were able to talk to community members about our project and work with them to design our biosensor in a way that gives the community peace of mind.

After sitting down with residents of Alma and St. Louis and discussing our project, people seemed excited yet apprehensive about our biosensor. Everyone agreed that the project and work so far seemed promising however, there were large safety concerns that many people we spoke to had. These concerns lead to us spending the 2022 cycle developing a successful kill switch into our biosensor.

We also met with TriTerra again to discuss our project and what we can do going forward. TriTerra was happy to hear our project was nearly done and they gave us some insight on what we can do next.

They recommended finding a way to expand our biosensors capabilities to detect other chemical pollutants. This idea gave us confidence that our biosensor has great potential as it is and even greater potential in the future.

2023

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In between the end of the 2022 cycle and the beginning of the 2023 cycle a 5 year research project on the health of the Pine River was completed and published by Alma college. It announced that algae and modified E. coli levels were at an all time high.

With this news we decided to speak to residents and leaders of the study to get their perspective on the kill switch we implemented from 2022. Alma Professor Dr. Rowe completed the study and while impressed and optimistic about our project seemed more concerned with the use of E. coli and its potential complications with the current E. coli crisis in the Pine River.

Other stakeholders, from residents to local business owners we spoke to shared this sentiment, the interest and trust in an E. coli based biosensor was no longer there even with the improved kill switch safety.

“I don’t like the use of E. coli for [the Alma iGEM] project, I understand that you have added safety features to it, but I still worry about what could go wrong. Because in the end it’s about our safety.”

- Anonymous St. Louis resident living on the Pine River, 2023

With these concerns our team went back on our design, changing our system to be cell-free! With the new design of our project, Human Practices member Mackenzie Harwood attended and presented the new cell-free design to local residents at the September 19th St. Louis City Council meeting. Leaders and members of the community seemed interested and invested again in our project, and greatly appreciated our team listening to their concerns! Overall after going to a cell-free system we regained our stakeholders, members of the community, trust and confidence in our project.

St. Louis City Council members