This is our project, EcoPi.

In this page, you can see how it was designed and made.

Eutrophication can be a very severe problem to the environment. In an effort to solve this problem, we want to build a genetic system which can test and remove the phosphate from water. In our idea, we want to make a product which can automatically detects phosphate and therefore remove it. And it must be a totally environmentally friendly one. And we began our designing.

Frist we designed a genetic circuit which can test how the work has been done. We wanted to find a promoter which can only be induced by Pi starvation. Then there is a suppressor protein and an rfp. A double terminator is at the end of this device. This device can only work when the concentration of Pi is low. And the water will show red fluorescence. The red can also be a signal of ‘STOP’, which means the work has already finished.

Next we designed a second device for removing the phosphate. The promoter of this device is repressed by the protein in Device one, which means when the concentration of Pi is low, Device two will be limited and stop working. Then we wanted to find a CDS which can remove phosphate from water. And a gfp+LVA(degradation tag) with a terminator at the end. When this device is working, The CDS will remove the phosphate from water and meanwhile the gfp+LVA will show green fluorescence, just like the green traffic signal. This device is mainly used for removing phosphate.

This photo can show you how the two device are linked