Team:HUST-China
With the expanding of human settlements and the development of civil engineering, the demand of novel cementation material is increasing rapidly. To echo such demand, we developed Euk.cement: a live eukaryotic cell based auto-cementation kit. By surface displayed silica binding peptides and secreted flocculating proteins, Euk.cement will target onto any silica containing particles, such as sands and rocks, and stick them together. This system will be automatically initiated only in dark with a light operated switch. While carbon dioxide released from the metabolism of cells will finally complete the calcium carbonate sedimentation. This economical and ecological friendly innovation can be utilized for a wide range of industrial or environmental applications, such as construction and restoration of building foundations, bridge piers, or even artificial reefs for aquaculture. Since we have exploited a new kind of marine yeast as chassis, the application field of eukaryotic synthetic biology has then been considerably broadened.