Team:York
Hello, We are the iGEM team representing the University of York!
University of York is located in North Yorkshire, England.
This year we have chosen to come up with a solution to a problem at the root of eutrophication- where too much phosphate in water bodies leads to algal blooms. These blooms disrupt local ecosystems by causing ‘dead zones’ in which animals are lost from the habitat. The input of wastewater into these bodies is a large contributing factor to the issue. Phosphate removal from wastewater is a considerable challenge that we hope to solve with biological agents as an alternative to chemical treatment. Our project builds upon the ideas of enhanced biological phosphate removal (EBPR) in which bacteria known as polyphosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs) in activated sludge acquire phosphate inside their cells. However current microbiological tools are inefficient and we feel that designing a bacterium to remove phosphate will be much better suited to the task.
