Team:Newcastle

Project description:

Microcracks in concrete could undermine structural integrity and are inaccessible to conventional repair methods. Bacillus species could be the ideal candidates for concrete repairing since they are able to precipitate CaCO₃ (Use of bacteria to repair cracks in concrete, Tittelboom et al, cement and concrete research (2009)).

Our project aims to fill cracks in concrete with a mixture of CaCO₃ , which has the same expansion coefficient as concrete, Glue, which is required to gel together the CaCO3 crystals and filamentous Bacillus subtilis cells, which will act as reinforcements like steel rods in concrete. To protect the environment our project will also include a design for a kill switch. To coordinate the cells once they have reaches the bottom of the crack, for which Bacillus subtilis 168 required swarming genes to be introduced from strain 3610 to swim, we will be using quorum sensing using the subtilin system previously used by Newcastle 2008’s iGEM team.