While synthetic biology is still a nascent field it has already opened the door to new possibilities. The VGEM Team is committed to exploring potential applications with an eye for bettering the human condition.
Not just Southeast Asia is affected by ground-water contaminated by arsenic, but many parts of the United States as well. This carcinogen can deny people access to clean drinking water, severely impacting their health if consumed over extended periods of time.
The problem of filtering arsenic in a rural setting has no definite answer yet. The VGEM Team is engineering a prototype biosequestration solution by creating recombinantE. colito absorb and store arsenic, removing it from the water table.
See Virginia 2009's project wiki for more details.
From left to right: Dan Tarjan (Biology 2010), Thaddeus Webb (Biology 2010), Rohini Manaktala (BME 2011), Brandon Freshcorn (BME 2010), Maria Fini (BME 2010), Joe Bozzay (BME 2010).