Team:Newcastle/solution

Overview

BacillaFilla repairs concrete by producing a mixture of calcium carbonate, levan glue and filamentous cells in the cracks. Once we have applied BacillaFilla spores onto the concrete surface, they will start germinating in the presence of media. Once all the cells have germinated, they will start to swarm down the crack. At the bottom of the crack when they reach at a high density, they have will use subtilin quorum sensing to activate concrete repair. BacillaFilla repairs concrete by 3 different processes:

1. Some of the cells with produce calcium carbonate crystals,
2. Some of the cells will become filamentous thereby acting as reinforcing fibres in the crack and
3. All the cells will produce Levans glue which acts as a binding agent and at the same time it fills up the whole crack.

Therefore the mixture of all the three elements together will make a strong repair.

The industrial process of BacillaFilla starts from the batch bioreactor where the cells are grown at optimal conditions. The cells are then made to undergo sporulation and the spores are then transferred into storage containers. Spores don't require any nutrition or constant care and therefore they are ideal for long term storage and transportation. The storage containers will then be transported to the concrete repair site where they can be attached to a hand operated sprayer which will enable the personnel to spray spores along with the media onto the concrete surface. Once landed onto the concrete surface in the presence of media, the spores will germinate and will initiate concrete repair.

Our Initial research

Parts Submitted to the Registry

1. CaCO₃/Urease
2. Filamentous cells
3. End of crack & signalling system
4. Swarming
5. Non-target-environment kill switch
6. Glue

Part Testing and Characterisation

1. yneA Characterisation

Alkalinity resistance

Our chassis, Bacillus subtilis 168, can be acclimatised to the high pH of concrete (which can be as high as pH 10). Below on the left you can see Bacillus subtilis 168 which was grown under normal conditions (pH 7) and then transferred to pH 10. On the right is Bacillus subtilis 168 which has been acclimatised to high pH (by growing at increasing pH levels from 7 to 9) before being transferred to pH 10, and has a much higher rate of survival.

Extreme Base Resistance Test

Results:(see below) Cells raised at pH 8 then moved to pH 10(left)did not survive as well as cells raised at pH 9 (right)

An e-Science Approach to Synthetic Biology