Team:Caltech/Project

Bioremediation of Endocrine Disruptors Using Genetically Modified Escherichia Coli

Endocrine disruptors, or substances that mimic estrogen in the body, have detrimental biological effects on the reproduction of several species of fish and birds; the Caltech team focuses on bioremediation of these toxins. Our goal is to create a system housed in E. coli that can be used to process water and remove endocrine disruptors on a large scale. We focus on isolating degradation systems for the common endocrine disruptors bisphenol A (BPA), DDT, nonylphenol and estradiol. We synthesized known degradation enzymes DDT dehydrochlorinase, BisdA and BisdB, and characterized the behavior of these enzymes when acting on our target endocrine disruptors. In addition, we explored the potential of certain cytochrome p450s to initiate degradation of these chemicals, focusing on WT-F87A degradation of BPA. Finally, we characterized the functionality of E. coli protein processing when E. coli is deployed as an easily containable biofilm on various substances in aqueous environments.

Overall project

• Project Details
• Experiment
• Results, maybe