Team:Stuttgart
iGEM Team
Uni Stuttgart
Uni Stuttgart
Water contamination
Our project LAC-MAN focusses on water purification from the pharmaceuticals diclofenac (pain relivers) and carbamazepine (antiepileptika) using laccases. These substances still cannot be filtered out of the wastewater completely.
Laccases
The laccases, a class of enzymes able to degrade numerous pollutants, are immobilized to a mesoporous silica foam, making them long-term sustainable and more pH- and thermostable.
Immobilization
Silica-based materials are well suited because they are environmentally friendly, biocompatible and resistant to organic solvents and microbial attacks. Because the enzymes are bound to a matrix via our innovative poly-lysine tag, no
genetically modified organisms are released into the environment.
Degredation
Furthermore, the degradation products have no negative effects on nature anymore. We were able to express the laccase of S. cyaneus and to synthesize the silica foam. Furthermore, we were able to predict the substrate conversion rate in
regard to the amount of immobilized laccases via a kinetic model according to Michaelis-Menten.
