{"id":597024,"date":"2023-11-08T15:31:25","date_gmt":"2023-11-08T12:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/engineered-living-materials-could-help-clean-up-water-pollution-one-day\/"},"modified":"2023-11-08T15:31:25","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T12:31:25","slug":"engineered-living-materials-could-help-clean-up-water-pollution-one-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/engineered-living-materials-could-help-clean-up-water-pollution-one-day\/","title":{"rendered":"#Engineered &#8216;living materials&#8217; could help clean up water pollution one day"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_89 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6af6ff9a37050\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6af6ff9a37050\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/engineered-living-materials-could-help-clean-up-water-pollution-one-day\/#Engineering_a_living_material\" >Engineering a living material<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/engineered-living-materials-could-help-clean-up-water-pollution-one-day\/#Cleaning_up_dye\" >Cleaning up dye<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-gallery lightGallery\">\n<div data-thumb=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/tmb\/2023\/water-pollution-1.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/hires\/2023\/water-pollution-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Credit: Pixabay\/CC0 Public Domain\">\n<figure class=\"article-img\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/800a\/2023\/water-pollution-1.jpg\" alt=\"Water pollution\" title=\"Credit: Pixabay\/CC0 Public Domain\" width=\"800\" height=\"530\"\/><figcaption class=\"text-darken text-low-up text-truncate-js text-truncate mt-3\">\n                Credit: Pixabay\/CC0 Public Domain<br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Water pollution is a growing concern globally, with <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.oneear.2022.01.005\">research estimating<\/a> that chemical industries discharge <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cleanwaterinternational.org\/water-pollution-everything-we-need-to-know\/amp\/\">300\u2013400 megatonnes<\/a> (600\u2013800 billion pounds) of industrial waste into bodies of water each year.<\/p>\n<p>As a <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pokorskilab.com\/\">team of materials scientists<\/a>, we&#8217;re working on an engineered &#8220;living material&#8221; that may be able to transform chemical dye pollutants from the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2023\/04\/21\/middleeast\/textile-wastewater-pollutant-cleaner-hnk-scn-spc-intl\/index.html\">textile industry<\/a> into harmless substances.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.safewater.org\/fact-sheets-1\/2017\/1\/23\/industrial-waste\">Water pollution<\/a> is both an environmental and humanitarian issue that can affect ecosystems and human health alike. We&#8217;re hopeful that the materials we&#8217;re developing could be one tool available to help combat this problem.\n<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Engineering_a_living_material\"><\/span>Engineering a living material<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The &#8220;<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/collections\/fhcabedjaa\">engineered living material<\/a>&#8221; our team has been working on <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/my.clevelandclinic.org\/health\/articles\/24494-bacteria\">contains programmed bacteria<\/a> embedded in a soft hydrogel material. We first published a paper showing the potential effectiveness of this material in <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2023-09-3d-printed-material-contaminated.html\"><i>Nature Communications<\/i><\/a> in August 2023.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/explainer-what-is-a-hydrogel\">The hydrogel<\/a> that forms the base of the material has similar properties to Jell-O\u2014it&#8217;s soft and made mostly of water. Our particular hydrogel is made from a natural and biodegradable <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/dalchem.com.au\/how-to\/what-is-alginate\/\">seaweed-based polymer called alginate<\/a>, an ingredient common <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/kitchen-theory.com\/sodium-alginate-spherification\/\">in some foods<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The alginate hydrogel provides a solid physical support for bacterial cells, similar to how tissues support cells in the human body. We intentionally chose this material so that the bacteria we embedded could grow and flourish.<\/p>\n<p>We picked the seaweed-based alginate as the material base because it&#8217;s porous and can retain water. It also allows the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.microscopemaster.com\/photosynthetic-bacteria.html\">bacterial cells<\/a> to take in nutrients from the surrounding environment.<\/p>\n<p>After we prepared the hydrogel, we embedded photosynthetic\u2014or sunlight-capturing\u2014bacteria called <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/blue-green-algae\">cyanobacteria<\/a> into the gel.<\/p>\n<p>The cyanobacteria embedded in the material still needed to take in light and carbon dioxide <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/education.nationalgeographic.org\/resource\/photosynthesis\/\">to perform photosynthesis<\/a>, which keeps them alive. The hydrogel was porous enough to allow that, but to make the configuration as efficient as possible, we <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cellink.com\/3d-bioprinting\/\">3D-printed<\/a> the gel into custom shapes\u2014grids and honeycombs. These structures have a higher surface-to-volume ratio that allow more light, CO\u2082 and nutrients to come into the material.<\/p>\n<p>The cells were h<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>y in that geometry. We observed higher cell growth and density over time in the alginate gels in the grid or honeycomb structures when compared with the default disk shape.<\/p>\n<p>                                            <!-- Google middle Adsense block --><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Cleaning_up_dye\"><\/span>Cleaning up dye<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Like all other bacteria, cyanobacteria has different <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ibiology.org\/bioengineering\/genetic-circuits\/\">genetic circuits<\/a>, which tell the cells what outputs to produce. Our team <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/genetic-engineering\/Process-and-techniques\">genetically engineered<\/a> the bacterial <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/definition\/dna\/\">DNA<\/a> so that the cells created a specific enzyme <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Laccase\">called laccase<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The laccase enzyme produced by the cyanobacteria works by performing a chemical reaction with a pollutant that transforms it into a form that&#8217;s no longer functional. By breaking the chemical bonds, it can make a toxic pollutant nontoxic. The enzyme is regenerated at the end of the reaction, and it goes off to complete more reactions.<\/p>\n<p>Once we&#8217;d embedded these laccase-creating cyanobacteria into the alginate hydrogel, we put them in a solution made up of <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC10532910\/\">industrial dye pollutant<\/a> to see if they could clean up the dye. In this test, we wanted to see if our material could change the structure of the dye so that it went from being colored to uncolored. But, in other cases, the material could potentially change a chemical structure to go from toxic to nontoxic.<\/p>\n<p>The dye we used, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC10532910\/\">indigo carmine<\/a>, is a common industrial wastewater pollutant usually found in the water near textile plants\u2014it&#8217;s the main pigment in blue jeans. We found that our material took all the color out of the bulk of the dye over about 10 days.<\/p>\n<p>This is good <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a>, but we wanted to make sure that our material wasn&#8217;t adding waste to polluted water by leaching bacterial cells. So, we also engineered the bacteria to produce a protein that could damage the cell membrane of the bacteria\u2014a programmable kill switch.<\/p>\n<p>The genetic circuit was programmed to respond to a harmless chemical, called <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/pcp\/article\/54\/10\/1724\/1908151\">theophylline<\/a>, commonly found in caffeine, tea and chocolate. By adding theophylline, we could destroy bacterial cells at will.<\/p>\n<p>The field of engineered living materials is still developing, but this just means there are plenty of opportunities to develop new materials with both living and nonliving components.<\/p>\n<div class=\"d-inline-block text-medium my-4\">\n                                                Provided by<br \/>\n                                                                                                    The Conversation<br \/>\n                                                                                                        <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"icon_open\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\"><br \/>\n                                                        <svg><use href=\"https:\/\/techx.b-cdn.net\/tmpl\/v2\/img\/svg\/sprite.svg#icon_open\" x=\"0\" y=\"0\"\/><\/svg><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"article-main__note mt-4\">\n                                                This article is republished from <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\">The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/engineered-living-materials-could-help-clean-up-water-pollution-one-day-213326\">original article<\/a>.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/213326\/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced\" alt=\"The Conversation\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                                        <!-- print only --><\/p>\n<div class=\"d-none d-print-block\">\n<p>                                                <strong>Citation<\/strong>:<br \/>\n                                                Engineered &#8216;living materials&#8217; could help clean up water pollution one day (2023, November 8)<br \/>\n                                                retrieved 8 November 2023<br \/>\n                                                from https:\/\/techxplore.com\/news\/2023-11-materials-pollution-day.html<\/p>\n<p>                                            This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no<br \/>\n                                            part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script id=\"facebook-jssdk\" async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/science\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Science category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/techxplore.com\/news\/2023-11-materials-pollution-day.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Credit: Pixabay\/CC0 Public Domain Water pollution is a growing concern globally, with research estimating that chemical industries discharge 300\u2013400 megatonnes (600\u2013800 billion pounds) of industrial waste into bodies of water each year. As a team of materials scientists, we&#8217;re working on an engineered &#8220;living material&#8221; that may be able to transform chemical dye pollutants from&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":597025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/hires\/2023\/water-pollution-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-597024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sciencee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}