Difference between revisions of "Team:NTHU Taiwan/Description"
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| − | This year, our goal is to deal with | + | This year, our goal is to deal with Endocrine Disruptor Chemicals (EDCs) in farmland irrigation water, and we have proposed an integrated water protection system that can both detect and degrade EDCs for the farmers. EDCs can interfere with endocrine systems, causing cancerous tumors, birth defects, and other developmental disorders. EDCs are mostly man-made and found in various materials such as pesticides, food containers, and personal care products. Many countries have the problem of setting up factories near farming areas. Once the factories illegally emit these the EDCs, it could contaminate the farmland irrigation water. In this project, we primarily focus on two common kinds of EDCs, BPA (Bisphenol A) and NP (Nonyl Phenol). |
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Revision as of 11:43, 28 October 2017
Description
This year, our goal is to deal with Endocrine Disruptor Chemicals (EDCs) in farmland irrigation water, and we have proposed an integrated water protection system that can both detect and degrade EDCs for the farmers. EDCs can interfere with endocrine systems, causing cancerous tumors, birth defects, and other developmental disorders. EDCs are mostly man-made and found in various materials such as pesticides, food containers, and personal care products. Many countries have the problem of setting up factories near farming areas. Once the factories illegally emit these the EDCs, it could contaminate the farmland irrigation water. In this project, we primarily focus on two common kinds of EDCs, BPA (Bisphenol A) and NP (Nonyl Phenol).
There are mainly two objectives in our project, detection of EDCs and degradation of EDCs.
For detection, we first modified E.coli to express EDC receptor, ERα, on the membrane of E.coli. Next, we modified E.coli to produce monobody and assembled them on a gold electrode surface. Once EDCs are bound with ERα, monobody will capture bounded ERα, making E.coli closer to gold electrode. This leads to impedance changes on gold electrode.
In the future, via surface plsamon resonance or intensity of fluorescence, we can measure this change and further estimate the concentration of EDCs.
For degradation, we modified E.coli to produce target enzymes which are able to degrade BPA and NP. To make our project more applicable, we integrated target enzymes with activated carbon, membrane and bioreactor system to eliminate these contaminants in wastewater. We also employed feedback control loop, together with detection of EDCs, so as to enhance the efficiency of degradation.
In the future, we hope to put our idea into practice in order to make our world a better place.
