Team:TU Darmstadt/Awards

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While working on our project, we paid attention to many sub-components in order to create our finished overall system. Even if all parts were important to assemble our project, we put particular focus on some, like Human Practices and Modeling. It was also important to us to choose a project, contributing to cleaner water and therefore to the United Nations sustainable development goals. On this page we would like to concentrate on our innovative strategies to contribute to:
  • global challenges
  • educating people
  • integrating additional opinions/needs into our project
  • modeling our system for better experimental planning
  • designing a software tool for biofilm modeling in collaboration with the Hannover iGEM Team

The texts below should give you an overview about our award-worthy endeavors. The short versions of these texts can be found in the Judging Form. Furthermore, we summarize which medal criteria we fulfill and link you to the associated pages.




Best Sustainable Development Impact

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Best Education

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Best Integrated Human Practices

After vigorous research for our project idea and discussions about the implementation of our project, we came to write experts. With our project B-TOX we intervene into something man build in order to preserve the environment and wild life. Consistently, it is necessary for us to turn to society, stakeholders and experts in the field of wastewater treatment as well as purification to even consider an implementation of our project idea.
We had informative and fascinating talks with multiple people from different professions, like professors from philosophy departments and sewage management, the head managers from local wastewater treatment plants, aquatic toxicologists and microbiologists amongst others. To our great advantage, most of the experts we contacted are working on comparable projects, utilizing either laccases or having worked on the filtration of wastewater in regard to diclofenac.
We integrated many of their valuable ideas and suggestions into our project. But what exactly have we learned from our experts?
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We have led conversations with various stakeholders who were able to stress their doubts and apprehensions about our project, especially regarding safety concerns. Considering that we are working with genetically modified organisms, it was important to ensure the containment of our biofilm system. To seize control over our biofilm, we developed a kill switch system(click here for further information) in order to attain a secure use, as Dr. Ulrich Ehlers from the Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety suggested. For a complete review on the input he gave, please click here.
In the matter of safety and ethics, we also turned to experts in this field like Prof. Dr. Sibylle Gaisser from the department of industrial biotechnology at the Hochschule Ansbach. Following her recommendations, we created a safety form (LINK) with the goal to prevent a misuse of our biofilm (dual use issue), and also constructed a safety sheet meant for the wastewater treatment employees in order to educate them for their safety. For a more detailed review of Prof. Dr. Gaisser’s input, click here.
With Prof. Dr. Alfred Nordmann and Prof. Dr. Andres Jürgens we investigated the question of how to develop an ethically justifiable project and the steps toward it. We summarized all of our ethical considerations on an extra page, click here.
Dipl. Ing. Udo Bäuerle, an engineer specialized on the planning of WWTPs, elucidated us on the reoccurring problems considering commonly used procedures like ozonolysis and the use of active carbon in wastewater treatment plants – assuring us that a project like ours would be helpful (click here for more information on him).
Another aspect we focused on, besides safety, was the proper disposal of pharmaceuticals like diclofenac. There would be considerably less water contamination trough drugs if our society was aware of the proper disposal, to begin with. As we were told by Dr. Patrick Schröder from the German Environment Agency, private households are the primary and main source of drugs in wastewater treatment plants. Hence, we went on and translated the key aspects of the flyer regarding proper disposal of pharmaceuticals from the German Federal Agency into English to achieve a sensibility at an international level. We are convinced that this will also enhance the awareness towards other substances such as ibuprofen or hormones like estrogen, which in addition to diclofenac can be dismantled by our laccase. For a complete review of our interview with Dr. Patrick Schröder, please click here. Last but not least, Prof. Dr. Jörg Oehlmann, an aquatic ecotoxicologist from the Goethe University in Frankfurt, also called attention to other degradable substances like 17-alpha-estradiol and bisphenol A - in addition to carbamazepine and the few others, as mentioned before.
The input we gathered confirmed our initial perception of the danger diclofenac poses to the environment and that there is need of a project like ours. It was also brought to our attention how broad the substrate specificity of the laccases is and that they are also capable of rendering other substances less toxic, like ibuprofen or carbamazepine. Furthermore, Prof. Dr. Susanne Lackner (head of the department of sewage management at the TU Darmstadt) gave us recommendations on the use of biofilm carriers regarding their material and maintenance, plus offering us to send us samples. A bacterial strain of B. subtilis was offered to us as well by courtesy of Prof. Dr. Jörg Stülke (for a complete review of his input, click here). To read more about the input Prof. Dr. Lackner gave us, click here.
Not only did our experts draw attention to other substances we could focus on, but did also confirm some of our approaches, such as the knockout of both sinR and σF that regulates the sporulation of B. subtilis. The knockout of both of those genes would eventually make our biofilm more resilient, but would not spare the need of a kill switch. In addition, the abundance of the fusion protein TasA would guarantee an adequate display of our laccases in the biofilm matrix, as it was confirmed by PhD. Yunrong Chai from the Northeastern University in Boston. To read more about his input, click here.





We have managed to reach lots of experts from different fields and departments in order to optimise our project idea and bring it closer to realization and an implementation. Hence, we are immensely grateful to each and every one who has helped and guided us towards the final concept as it is.
If you want to read more about why we strive for best integrated human practices click here for the judging form.

Best Model

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Best Software Tool

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Medals


*Checkbox IMG* Registration and Giant Jamboree Attendance:
*Checkbox IMG* Competition Deliverable:
*Checkbox IMG* Attributions:
*Checkbox IMG* Project Inspiration and Description:
*Checkbox IMG* Characterization: