Biotechnological High School Albstadt-Ebingen and Abi Startschuss 2017

Human practices is a big part of iGEM. Our mission is to explain people what we want to reach with our project and what synthetic biology actually means. A lot of people are still afraid when they hear about genetic engineering and genetically modified products, due to unlucky inccidences that are related to this topic. By spreading out our knowledge we want to make sure that people get educated in this field to build up their opinion without prejudices in the future. As we know that education starts with young people and the next generations will be responsible for our future we aimed to go to schools and education exhibitions to start with our outreach work here. For this we are going to visit the Biotechnological Gymnasium (High School) Albstadt and the Abi-Startschuss Messe in Stuttgart. Our focus is to explain kids what synthetic biology provides for the future and how many interesting and diverse career opportunities they are in this field. We want to explain about iGEM the competition itself and the chance what it means to work as a team on a completely autonomous scientific project.

Interview with Dr. Carsten Meyer from the department of wastewater technology

By inventing an sustainable, eco-friendly tube cleanser for every household we also want to know how the public reacts to our project. As the marketing and commercialization of a tube cleanser that one can buy in the supermarket is out of scope due to time limitations, we know that the research we do is not sufficient. Nevertheless we believe that there is great potencial in our genetically modified tube cleanser and we want to know how the public would react to it and what consequences the use of it would have. For this we visitied the Institute of sanitary environmental engineering and water recycling of the University Stuttgart were we had a very interesting interview with Dipl.-Ing. Carsten Meyer from the department of wastewater technology. Furthermore Mr Meyer gave us a tour through the wastewatertreatment plant and explained us all in detail how the cleaning process of the wastewater works. The institute is not only doing research but also actually cleaning the wastewater of the University Stuttgart and parts of the surrounding suburbs.

The iGEM-Team Stuttgart interviewed Carsten Meyer on his opinion and possible range of application regarding a biological drain cleaner for the usage and its effect in wasterwater treatment. Dipl.-Ing Carsten Meyer – abbreviated CM in the following interview – is the Head of the Department of Wastewater Technology of the Insitute for Sanitary Enigneering, Water Quality and Soild Waste Management located at the University of Stuttgart.
The German sewage treatment plants can be generally classified into three steps. The first one, is represented by mechanical methods to remove solid, insoluble particles. The following biological step is responsible for the degradation of organic components (including also organic bound nitrogen) by the help of microorganisms. The last step utilizes chemical reactions as oxidation or precipitation to remove chemical components such as phosphor. The sewage sludge resulted by these three steps is then used in digestion tanks for biogas production and, subsequently, is mostly burnt (1).

iGEM Team: Dear Mr Meyer, what do you relate with the term Synthetic Biology/Genetic engineering?

CM: Well, it is a diverse field that can be used in and is known especially in agriculture and food industry. People often have negative associations to it, as the consequences of the usage of genetically modified products are often not predictable. But it is an important part of our society and environment that has lots of advantages to offer, when we use it wisely. Due to the lack of nutrition one day I think Synthetic Biology will be inevitable.

iGEM-Team: What is generally your opinion on our biological drain cleaner which is based on a holistic approach using E.coli?

CM: I think it’s a good idea. Whereby, the chemical substances, usually something basic like sodium hydroxide, which are often used for drain cleaners, don’t really destroy anything in a sewage treatment plant. Nevertheless, I think it’s a good idea to try different ways than the usual ones and you never know which further concepts could follow. In a sewage treatment plant, hair usually don’t pose a big problem, however, there are problems of so-called tressings which often build up by hair in pumps or in stirrers of the digestion tanks. If these tressings aren’t removed they can cause defects. If latter can be avoided more easily, that would be great.

iGEM-Team: These tressings are really a problem which are mainly caused by the household drains?

CM: The main cause for tressings are definitely households. But I must raise the question as well if one always have to use the chemical – or in this case biological – mace. There also exists the good old plunger. (all laughing)

iGEM-Team: These chemical drain cleaners don’t even contain stuff like sodium hydroxide but also nitrate and aluminum components. Can these substances cause problems, as we already have – e.g. in case of the nitrate – to much nitrate in (German) ground water?

CM: I don’t think that nitrate would cause major problems as most sewage treatment plants, at least the bigger ones, are equipped with a biological step which degrades nitrate. Concerning the aluminum components, I don’t consider that as a bigger problem. Substances as aluminum hydroxide go into the sewage sludge which gets, by the majority, burnt in Germany. However, in some states the sludge is still utilized soil-related as fertilizer. Of course, then the aluminum substances can cause problems as it’s released into the environment. Therefore, it’s good that the government plans to forbid the soil-related sewage sludge utilization.

iGEM Team: What are the biggest issues in the wastewater treatment?

CM: We do have a really big issues with wet wipes. Instead of throwing them in the garbage people throw them in the toilet. They are immensely resistable and clog strainer and rakes of the wasterwater plant, so that it can’t work properly anymore. Other than that there are big uses with organic substances from showergel, household cleaner and pharmaceuticals. These organical compounds can’t be cleaned by a wasterwater plant and they reach our environment and waters. We don’t know how these organical and chemical compounds interact with each other and what influences they will have on our environment and eco system.

iGEM-Team: In the news, they recently talked a lot about blockages caused by fat. Are these blockages really such a big problem?
CM: Alluding to the recent incidence that happened in London? It can happen, of course. So, you asked about fat blockages in pipes, weren’t you?
iGEM-Team: Yes, about big lumps of fat.

CM: These are possible. However, the main cause aren’t the households but rather commercial and industrial groups. These problems pose if these groups don’t separate fat from the sewage water before it’s led into the canal system. Furthermore, if the canal system is badly maintained, if the canals system is old, if water is missing in the canals, or if the transport velocity isn’t high enough, then it’s quite possible that such fat deposits happen.

iGEM-Team: Would such fat blockages be an interesting area of attack for our biological drain cleaner?

CM: Yes, I can imagine that.

iGEM-Team: Great. Our drain cleaner degrades fats, soap residues and hair. Do you think that, by this breakdown synthesized, important amino acids and fatty acids can be recycled?

CM: Only theoretically, that could be possible. But I can’t judge if that would be economically reasonable. Furthermore, I can see also a conflict of interests. If we say, we want to recycle e.g. fats then they are lacking somewhere else. In the course of the process, fats usually go into the sewage sludge and thereby into the digestion tank. These fats are then important for the biogas production. Consequently, there arises the question if it’s favored to recycle single substances with a relative great effort or is it better to utilize these substances in the degradation tank for the biogas production?

iGEM-Team: Our E.coli doesn’t only degrade hair and fat, furthermore it produces a rose or fir fragrance by using the degraded substances. Would that be something for your sewage treatment plant?

CM: Wow, that are totally new perspectives. (all laugh) Indeed, there are treatment plants which must cover their biological step to avoid odor if a sewage plant is close to a residential area or if an unfavorable wind direction occurs. However, a good treatment plant usually doesn’t smell too much, anyway, it can happen from time to time. And if you can then scent a rose fragrance instead, that would be great!

iGEM-Team: Supposing that our biological drain cleaner work as we planned. Would you personally use it?

CM: I would test it in any case!




(1) http://www.bmub.bund.de/themen/wasser-abfall-boden/binnengewaesser/abwasser/klaeranlage-kurzinfo/

Lab Supply Exhibition 2017 in Münster

We also realized that outreach goes hand in hand with our fundraising work. To convince people to sponsor our project we have to indicate the people and explain them why it would be worth it to finance the eco-friendly tube cleaner. Therefore we made a big tour from south to north Germany and visited the Lab Supply Exhibition 2017 in Münster. Four of our team got familiar with the different exhibitors that participated at this day. It was a great exchange of knowledge as we not only got the chance to introduce our project to the different companies, but also to get informed what is recently on the market to equip a good laboratory. It was the first time for us to get the chance to visit Münster and we were happy to get a sneak peak of the city after a successful outreach day.

SynBioDay 2017 in Düsseldorf

During the last few month we realized that outreach work is not only important but also gives you great opportunity to make collaborations, to interact with different experst and to collect new ideas and trouble shooting solutions. The iGEM Team Cologne-Düsseldorf invited us and other iGEM Teams to the SynBioDay 2017 in Düsseldorf. Once again we crossed Germany improving our driving and navigating skills and were welcomed by a highly motivated team that organized this open day for the public and for experts. We can’t explain how happy we were to participate at this day. We go a whole bunch of knowledge from other iGEM Teams that introduced their projects, but also heard many interesting talks from experts that introduced different topics of Synthetic Biology. After a very informative day, a filled stomach and fully loaded brain we ended the day with a very interesting discussion about the ethics of genetic engineering and Synthetic Biology. Here experts and non-experts could explain and exchange their point of views. Thank you iGEM Team Köln/Düsseldorf – it was a blast!