We are living in an age with unprecedented technological, medical and industrial advances but we have forgotten to keep up with solutions to problems these advances bring. The ultimate challenge and goal of the future needs to be the development of technologies that enable sustainable  growth and enable humanity to thrive without harming our ecosystem further.

But how can we clean up what we have caused through decades of careless use of nouveau chemicals and processes without thinking of consequences? 

We need to act now! 

We need a solution to clean up the poisons we have left – now!

A lot of Wastewater treatment processes can not remove pollutants, like medical or industrial waste sufficiently. These substances often end up in rivers and spread through other bodies of water and end up affecting all ecosystems. Chemicals can accumulate and cause devastating harm to our environment. 

We all are affected by the pollution and need to solve this environmental crisis.

New chemicals are developed with record breaking speed and are often not sufficiently characterised before usage and consequences are seen years after the initial use. 

 One such example is Atrazine. 

The herbicide Atrazine is banned in… but is still being used in … Even in such countries that have banned the use of Atrazine it can still be measured in bodies of water and even the groundwater.

Even in small concentrations the effects of Atrazine can be severe and because of its long half time it accumulates in the environment. 

How many more chemicals are there that we currently use and don’t know the consequences of
– yet? 

We need to start acting now!

We can not contain these poisons to the areas they were originally applied at.
Everything is connected and this pollution is a problem which will affect us all.
We need a plan to reduce the acute toxicity of pollutants like pesticides directly at high accumulation hotspots before they cause more harm.

Our Planet needs a chance to regenerate and it is our obligation to help!

How long can we continue what we are doing?

  How long can our planet endure this abuse? 

 “We’re finally going to get the bill for the Industrial Age. If the projections are right, it’s going to be a big one: the ecological collapse of the planet.” – Jeremy Rifkin 

 We need to act! Now!

We have the solution!

   

 CYPurify – The Solution to Pollution!

That is a bold claim,  let us explain our idea!  

We are using the green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in our live organism approach to environmental pollution. Chlamy is photoautotrophic and easy to cultivate.
It fixates carbon and produces oxygen and important reaction equivalents for our system automatically. You really could not wish for better suited organism.
And with a modular cloning library of parts perfectly adapted to it, Chlamy is perfectly suited for any environmental, sustainability or bioremediation project like this.

To detoxify chemicals like herbicide, insecticides or even medical waste, we are using an inredible family of enzymes. Cytochrome P450 enzymes (CYPs) are found across all kingdoms of life and have very important roles. These heme-containig super-enzymes play a major role in the metabolism of drugs and other xenobiotics. There are multiple CYP enzymes in the human liver for example. CYP enzymes are the key to what we believe makes Chlamydomonas reinhardtii the perfect bioremediation factory. Our live organism approach delivers on all the needs of our CYP enzymes, like being membrane bound, needing access to reaction equivalents like NADPH and oxygen and potential need for co-enzymes like CYP-reductases. Chlamydomonas already has its own set of CYP enzymes – and reductases – and because of its photoautotrophic nature it automatically delivers all needed reaction equivalents.

To target specific pollutants directly at hotspots, we decided to encapsulate our modified algae in a nano pore material, inspired by dialysis membranes. The membrane is permeable to all necessary nutrients, light, and of course the toxic chemicals, but will keep the algae locked in.
To prevent accidental release, the membrane will be impenetrable to light of a specific wavelength. Should the algae exit the capsule, the previously blocked out wavelength will activate a killswitch.

 A capsule is only one of the ways to passively use our Algae. It was very important to us to think of a passive system to take advantage of the self-sustaining capabilities of Chlamydomonas and not having to invest extra energy into the system.
That makes it perfect for remote locations and keeps costs of operation low. 

This way we believe we can have the biggest impact across all communities.

With these capsules containing our live algae we can make sure to deploy the algae where it is needed most and fight pollution.
After the algae’s job is done, the capsules which can be fit to a net can be taken out of the water and the algae can be processed and used as bio-fertiliser. Since the CYP enzymes degrade and detoxify the pollutants like herbicides and not just accumulate or filter them out of the water, this fertiliser contains no active herbicides but is rich in nitrogen and phosphate. 

 Of course, there is no one answer to pollution,
just like there is no one enzyme that can detoxify every pollutant.
The goal of our system is not to provide a “one fits all” solution to pollution but rather to target the algae directly at one specific pollutant or group of pollutants by using different CYP enzymes. 

Our goal is to build a Chlamydomonas reinhardtii library with several different CYPs that target all kinds of pollutants. 

And with that library, we can provide The Solution to Pollution!

We believe that each and everyone of us can contribute to
a clean environment and a brighter future for generations to come. 

We need to act now, think of clean alternatives and remove all pollutants caused by our negligence in the past. 

 

We believe in a birght and shinig future!