An interview with Prof. Cao
On June 23rd, we were honored to have Dr. Huansheng Cao, the assistant professor of environmental science at Duke Kunshan University, as an interviewee discussing our iGEM project. Dr. Cao’s research focuses on microbial systems biology and is an expert in cyanobacterial bloom-related issues. After introducing our concept of design and experimental plan of the project, he shows great interest and enthusiastically shared his experience in studying water bloom, pointed out the current concerns, and gave us many useful suggestions on how we could improve our product and better set up a test field.
Q1: We did some background research on how nowadays people deal with the urgent water bloom and find out they mostly are using the chemical ways. Is that the real case?
A1: Basically, it is. When facing the water bloom, especially urgent harmful cyanobacterial bloom, since the toxin is accumulating in the water, governments should take the fast response and chemical ways are the most substantial and efficient. However, there are already many attempts trying to control the water bloom either physically or biologically. I used to advise one of my students in designing biomaterials that have good absorbability of algae and are environmentally friendly. To control the bloom, we let the water flow through our device with a large percentage of algae getting caught, gradually the algae density in the water can be controlled. But as you mentioned, if the algae are growing wildly and become a severe threat to the ecosystem, still chemical ways and physically salvage them are the currently applied ways to control the bloom.
Q2: Do you think our product that combines the algicidal peptide, nanoparticle, and modular units has advantages?
A2: I would say yes. The cyanobacteria bloom has its unique distribution on the water surface, if you find out the way better to target them, that will save a lot of effort. Also, I think your biosynthetic method to produce a large quantity of the peptide combing effective loading into nanoparticles can make your concept a lot feasible to become a real-life product. But still, I need you to cautiously examine whether your product has any subsequent environmental problem, for the reason you're going to deliver it into the lake.
Q3: How should we better simulate the lake environment and test our algicidal peptide?
A3: In general, you should set up a test field and combine it with mathematical modeling. For the test field, you need to prepare big enough containers and maintain water flow, light, and temperature. The reaction of laboratory algae strain may not represent the real water system, you have to collect your own water sample in a lake such as Taihu and separate your target algae to culture them. The culture media can be BG-11, it has no carbon source, and you can use a full-spectrum LED. Other than collecting data to verify the function of the peptide, you should also take advantage of math modeling to show your test data corresponds with your calculation so that you can be confident when you put your product into the water for real.
Q4: Do you have any other suggestions for this project?
A4: You clearly have a good design of your product, but when you pack it with multiple complicated functions, you should be sure that they’re really in need or they do give your product some benefit. Also, don’t feel down when some of the experiments didn’t meet your expectation, which is so normal when doing research. Just carefully analyze the result and think about what improvement you can make. Don’t hesitate to seek help. Good luck to you!