Synthetic Biology

 
Photo by Bill Oxford on Unsplash
 
Every year, cities and companies increasingly aim to embrace sustainable practices for the good of the environment and future generations. Companies can talk about sustainability, displaying and promoting their renewable-sourced products and green certifications. But at the end of the day, companies have to make a profit, meaning that they might not always be willing to adopt sustainable practices due to high costs. Innovation is indeed costly, but the environment cannot wait.

Every year, fossil fuel burning emits over 35 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Mass deforestation and overfishing are destroying essential carbon sinks such as the ocean and the Amazon rainforest. The increased use of antibiotics in farms, animals, and aquacultures pollutes the water and the soil while contributing to the worldwide antibiotic resistance crisis. Meanwhile, the growing human population demands more food, medicines, resources, and 21st-century solutions.

Luckily, the novel field of synthetic biology aims to harness nature’s building capacity, to implement sustainable practices in manufacturing processes and reduce the costs associated with the production of biofuels, materials or commodity chemicals to be competitive with existing products on the market. As defined by the National Human Genome Research Institute, synthetic biology is a field of science that involves redesigning organisms for valuable purposes by engineering them to have new abilities. 
 
Humans have used microbes for thousands of years to produce foods like wine, beer, cheese, yoghurt or bread. With synthetic biology, organisms can be modified to consume alternate food supplies and waste products such as carbon or methane rather than sugars, while still producing an extensive repertoire of products with less waste and lower costs.

For example, bacteria have been engineered to degrade and detect PET plastics in the environment, or to sequester carbon and nitrogen from the atmosphere.  Impossible Foods created a ‘meatless meat’ made of plant-based ingredients by engineering yeast to produce soy haemoglobin and give the plant-based burgers the real taste of meat. High-performance materials such as spider silk have also been produced in microbes here in Manchester! The SYNBIOCHEM institute looks into modifying natural spider silk fibres and designing new versions of spider silk with hydrophobic utilities for the outdoor apparel industry and even as aerospace materials.

The field is proliferating, and currently, a worldwide multi-billion-dollar industry exists where most of the newer ideas surged from the annual international Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM). The University of Manchester has participated in the iGEM competition since 2013, and every year, teams push the boundaries of synthetic biology to tackle real-world challenges while aiming for the transparent sharing of tools and knowledge. For example, the 2020 team engineered bacteria to produce hipposudoric acid - a compound in the sweat of the African Hippopotamus which acts as a natural sunscreen. The chemical can be used in personal care products as a non-toxic and anti-UV ray alternative that prevents coral reef bleaching. 

 

The 2013 team aimed to tackle mass deforestation in Indonesia by overexpressing the naturally occurring fatty acid pathways (palmitic, stearic, oleic and linoleic acid) to sustainably produce palm oil in Escherichia coli—a widely available and used bacterium.

Similarly, organisms can be engineered to process waste and convert them into valuable products. This year, the 2021 iGEM Manchester team aims to tackle biomass waste by creating a living therapeutic coating for foley catheters made from the most abundant polymer in plants - cellulose. Cellulose is present in any organic matter available including trees, wood, aquatic plants, residue fibres, animal wastes, or municipal waste. And after the process of purification, the polymer can be used in an array of products including medical devices. This way, we aim to design a low cost coating made with cellulose and engineered bacteria that selectively and safely targets harmful pathogens in biomedical materials. With this we want to adopt an alternative to antibiotics by producing a longer-lasting smart product that is also affordable in lower-income areas of the world.

However, imagination is one thing and implementation of ideas remains challenging. Public acceptance is a critical component of Synthetic biology, which currently remains hindered due to a widespread opposition against genetically modified crops and a lack of media coverage that communicates accurate information of real-time challenges. 

Scientific innovation should not only be restricted behind the closed doors of big corporations. Synthetic biology and the iGEM competition offer an opportunity to give voices to a wider diversity of creative people and have them influence which path Synthetic Biology takes. 

We are keen on hearing your views and opinions. If you are interested and would like to discuss or ask any questions about synthetic biology or whether it contributes to increased sustainability, please do get in touch in the comments or via Facebook or Instagram! 

Author: Sandra

More info:



Comments

Post a Comment

What are your thoughts? Let us know!

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)