Team:TU-Munich

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PhyscoFilter – Clean different.

The contamination of aquatic ecosystems with a multitude of anthropogenic pollutants has been a problem since the industrial revolution. Antibiotics, hormones and various noxious substances threaten environmental health and are not effectively removed by conventional waste water treatment. We propose to employ transgenic plants which produce effectors for enzymatic degradation (BioDegradation) or specific binding (BioAccumulation) of pollutants. The autotrophic, sedentary, aquatic nature of the moss Physcomitrella patens makes it an optimal chassis for a self-renewing, low-maintenance and cheap water filter. A light-triggered kill switch prevents unintended environmental spreading by limiting viability to places where the spectrum of sunlight is appropriately filtered. Furthermore, we have developed a device to implement our filter in an aquatic environment, investigated the application of this new technology and examined its economic feasibility. Based on our results, the PhyscoFilter may become a game-changing approach to improve global water quality in an affordable and sustainable fashion.

Achievements

At the European Jamboree our team achieved the following:

  • We won a gold medal.
  • We advanced to the World Championship Jamboree.
  • We won the Best Wiki prize.
  • We were the first runner up in the undergrad section.

Sponsors

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