CAREER: Engineering a Target-Selective Biological Photocatalyst for Water Disinfection

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1552456WendellDisinfection, an essential part of water quality engineering, is a process that has remained largely unchanged in the US for over century. Alternatives were only considered after the discovery of chlorine's organohalogen byproducts in the 1970s. Thus, there is a critical need for a safe, more efficient disinfection technology that is capable of destroying contaminants while minimizing disinfection byproducts and operational costs. The overarching goal of this project is to create a new paradigm of protein-based materials for water quality engineering.The proposed work will advance fundamental knowledge in the field of photocatalytic oxidation and disinfection, as it represents the first selective, metal-free, protein photocatalyst. The research will help inform future work by providing operating metrics and theory of catalytic function. Since the design is modular, a suite of future protein catalysts targeting other biohazards could easily be derived. Engineering a protein reactive oxygen photocatalyst that is target-specific will enable lower catalyst loadings, limiting disinfection byproducts and application costs. This project will advance the application of synthetic biology to environmental engineering and provide a foundation for designing future protein-based materials. The scientific objective of the proposed work is to experimentally elucidate the fundamental behavior of the photocatalyst and use these insights to inform the design of a modular protein-based disinfection technology. This technology will be validated against a chemically-resistant human pathogen, Cryptosporidium. The proposed research consists of three tasks: 1. Construction of enhanced protein photocatalysts for improved quantum efficiency and reactive oxygen production, 2) Examination of reactive oxygen speciation and generation rate to understand and optimize catalytic function, and 3) apply the biological photocatalysts to the most resistant water borne pathogens such as cyst-forming protozoa. Blending molecular biological tools with the environmental engineering field of advanced oxidation requires is paramount to advancing the area of disinfection. More broadly, the research will provide fundamental insight into how the catalyst works, leading to future variants with a range of disinfection applications. The new knowledge produced will serve as the basis for protein photocatalyst applications that will clean environmental and engineered waters and improve human health. The education and outreach components will enable opportunities for under-represented groups and minorities to learn the latest in synthetic biological engineering skills. Biological engineering relies on a variety of online tools, and as a result, the principal investigator's (PI's) present course curricula integrate tablets into the classroom. Using a real-time classroom web platform that the PI developed for mobile devices, this model could be implemented in science classrooms across the country. The PI will continue working with Research Experiences for Teachers which involves mentoring the construction of a bioluminescent water quality exhibit for the Newport Aquarium. This exhibit will provide a new teaching tool for the aquarium's education outreach WAVE foundation and high school classrooms.