Team:York
Hello, We are the iGEM team representing the University of York!
University of York is located in North Yorkshire, England.
We are working to lessen the eutrophication effects of downstream runoff from wastewater treatment plants. How? By engineering Escherichia coli to efficiently uptake phosphate out of wastewater. By using genes from specialised "Phosphate Accumulating Organisms" (PAOs), we are able to increase the efficiency of E. coli. This process is already used in enhanced biological phosphate removal (EBPR). By using E. coli to accumulate the phosphate, we can also integrate genes to make the bacteria float to the top of the bioreactor and have the bacteria skimmed off. Once the bacteria is in a separate tank, genes can be induced to export the phosphate which can be re-cycled and sold, and the bacteria recycled back into the bioreactors to continue phosphate removal.