Team:Bolivia/Proposed

TEAM BOLIVIA

Proposed Implementation

How do you envision others using your project? What are the security issues you should consider?

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We visualize a simple but practical device that any person with a basic training could manage. Nevertheless, we also are aware of the potential for incorrect waste management, so we imagine the incorrect use to consider all the security issues. For this reason we sought to facilitate its correct use, due to the social context in Bolivia. And the injustices in the access to specialized education in rural communities about Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) information. (1)

It will be necessary to consider the technical capabilities for the correct use of the device, for this reason the creation of the device was intuitive and carried out clear recommendations on the proper use of our biosensor. When applied in rural and urban communities where there is the possibility of not correctly understanding its use and the negative consequences that could result. If the instructions are followed correctly there would be no problems. Our biosafety protocol is clear and specific, for the correct use, it details the aspects of how it should be disposed of, not to consume the product, the device and take care that it does not come into contact with water or in the worst case the sewage drainage. It is recommended that the form of disposal is through incineration, since in rural communities there are no optimal conditions for conventional disposal of biological waste. (device, consuelo)2

In case of an oversight that could allow the release of the biosensor into the environment, we are thinking of options to avoid the unintended release of GMOs into the environment. For this, we reviewed biocontainment methods. These have high costs and technical aspects that are beyond us due to our context and economic capacity. It is something that has been studied, but has not been applied.t. Toxin and antitoxin methods can be applied; there are certain bacteria that lack essential amino acids that cannot live out of the paper. Change our chassis, and environment, which will seek to be 3 biocontainment systems, lacking essential Aa, remove nutrients or an alginate barrier. (YA ESTA)3consielo

Antitoxin toxin system (3)

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Our proposed end-users & how we envision them using our project

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As the Bolivia team we identified that the community members in urban and rural areas, although they will benefit from the visibility of their problems, are indirect users of our devices. However, when reflecting on the whole social and educational context we came to the conclusion that the best end users to make use of the Biosensor should be:

Antitoxin toxin system (3)

Researchers who are dedicated to collecting data on the presence of As in water for human consumption and researchers who study forms of sanitation. In Bolivia, a joint effort is being made by several researchers to identify the problems caused by the presence of arsenic in water for the people affected in terms of public health. The clearest example is Dr. Noemi Tirado.On the other hand, Dr. Mauricio Ormachea who works in very remote rural areas such as the Uru-Muratos community. (4) Both need to resort to highly specialized detection methods that are difficult to access in rural areas where conditions are not the best to house such equipment, which makes the water sampling process exponentially more difficult. In addition, confirming correctly the data obtained requires a large investment of physical energy and resources due to the long distances that must be traveled to sample wells and bodies of water. The distances are kilometers away from the laboratories where the methods are applied. With the Arsemaphore we accelerate the processes of correct data collection.

Antitoxin toxin system (3)

Companies

Likewise, we consider as end users those companies specialized in water remediation due to contamination of As and other heavy metals in rural community and urban community, such as the company AGUATUYA and CASA, who showed great interest in the biosensor as a tool to facilitate the detection of arsenic in contaminated water. For example, Mr. Renato Montoya, Executive Director of the organization Aguatuya, allowed us to visit some of the wastewater treatment plants, which are developed in the municipality of Sacaba (5). The plant has a purification tool to remove organic matter that pollutes the water. When he heard about our project he felt very interested because the presence of heavy metals in contact with bacteria affects their vitality. For this reason our biosensor would help to prevent this situation, which otherwise will lead to the inefficiency of the plant and its full operation. At the same time, we were offered to test our biosensor at the same time as the validation with the plant, for about 6 months. This event allows us to develop with more sufficiency and continuity our biosensor, having more opportunities to improve our device

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How we would implement our project in the real world: Arsemaphore in the real world

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Bolivian society lacks scientific culture and the use of synthetic biology generates susceptibility and possible reluctance to accept our project as a solution.Therefore, the implementation of the biosensor will have educational actions to sensitize people to understand the solutions from synthetic biology and guarantee the necessary biosafety measures.

A device that helps end users

Our concern is to generate susceptibilities to end users who will be in direct contact with community members in rural and urban areas. For such an event we are creating a device that avoids direct contact. We are based on the universal principle of biosafety (6): all biological material must be handled as risky, we also warn that the strain with which we work will not be released into the environment without being previously treated with sodium hypochlorite and then autoclaved along with all the material that comes into contact with it.

Considering aspects such as health, it should not come into direct contact with the person, because it is handled by means of a device; which will determine the samples under study. Through the mechatronic device it is possible to interpret, record and disseminate the manifestations of bacteria from 18 different samples quickly and accurately in a small space, being its main objective to accompany and enhance the biosensor considering as an important feature to reduce the exposure time of the operator with the bacteria, the information obtained may be observed by the operator in real time in addition to being transmitted via Wireless (wireless signals). It is portable, has an independent battery to facilitate its use by technicians of AGUA TUYA and CASA companies, researchers and technicians. Its use is intuitive. It is also semi-quantitative compared to atomic absorption spectrophotometry(7), whose use is widespread, because in Bolivia only this method is usually used, which is why our device facilitates expeditions to corners of our country where it is not easy to access the use of mass spectrophotometry. Our response time is a maximum of 24 hours. This helps a lot in mass data collection, it is field accessible, mobile, it is much cheaper. The bacteria can be very versatile, and can be improved for the future and adapted to other needs.

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Conclusion

Opiniones

that of the project

Project implementation

Future and solutions

References

Conclusion about “The Problem & Our Human-Centered Approach”

In the year 2021, it became clear to the world that it was urgent and our responsibility to take climate change issues seriously and that it was time to act. Therefore, with the intention of recovering the water bodies, we have developed a Biosensor for Arsenic detection. It is our understanding that this will not solve the problem, so it remains vitally important to generate tools such as this that are affordable and therefore allow us to democratize the use of synthetic biology in Bolivia.

The proposal of the Bolivian team is the development of a Biosensor for the detection of Arsenic in drinking water, it is a whole cell Biosensor in which an E. coli DH5α bacteria will be used, whose genetic circuit will be built by the the Bolivian team. It will have sensitivity to arsenic, it has a detection module, processing module output module, resulting in a signal that is characterized by the color change of chromoproteins. It is measurable in case of the presence of arsenic in the studied water samples.

Other challenges to be considered: To future and solutions

We are aware that our project does not solve the As problem in the urban and rural communities that we visited. However, our commitment and responsibility towards the communities that allowed us to make their problems visible, it is up to us to explore solutions so that in the future the Bolivia team can be part of the solutions to the presence and contamination of As.

Mechanisms of Arsenic Transformation by Bacteria

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In our research on bioremediation, we found that bacteria have a great metabolic diversity, due to their capacity to obtain energy using different oxidation-reduction reactions; therefore, an important number of microorganisms are capable of using arsenic, either in its oxidized form of arsenate or in the reduced form of arsenite, for their metabolism.

Microorganisms that transform As(V) and As(III) are diverse in their phylogeny and physiology. For arsenic transformation there are three main enzyme systems:

• Arsenite oxidase,
• Arsenate reductase
• Cytoplasmic arsenate reductase, cytoplasmic arsenate reductase and cytoplasmic arsenate reductase.

A large number of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria employ a common arsenic resistance mechanism based on the arsRDABC operon encoding five genes, which corresponds to the most studied arsenic detoxification system and is involved in the reduction of arsenate to arsenite by the enzyme arsenate reductase that expels arsenite out of the cell using an arsenic ejector pump.

In this area, it is concluded that an oxidation-reduction cycle between As(III) and As(V) is necessary to ensure the survival of bacteria inhabiting arsenic-contaminated niches. In their study, they tested the resistance of 6 bacterial strains isolated from the rhizosphere of the hyperaccumulator plant Pteris vittata to arsenite or arsenate and the relationship between this, phosphorus transport and siderophore production. Although most of the isolated strains reduced As(V), the existence of bacteria capable of oxidizing As(III) was necessary to establish a balance between the concentrations of both arsenic species and, thus, avoid the accumulation of arsenic inside the cell (8).

RAOS Method

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As a solution, the Bolivian team sees as convenient the implementation of the RAOS (Arsenic Removal by Solar Oxidation) method, due to the close contact that we had with Dr. Mauricio Escalera. He offered us the RAOS method as a safe, effective and viable method that can also be applied in rural areas that suffer arsenic contamination. It needs to store drinking water in plastic bottles, then add iron (Fe II) by means of pieces of wire bundle and a few drops of lemon juice and leave it exposed under the sun for 4 hours. During the exposure to sunlight free radicals of high oxidative power are generated as the OH radical that oxidizes Fe (II) to Fe (III) and As (III) to As (V), removing it in the liquid phase. The RAOS method removes 99.82 % of arsenic, leaving the treated water clear and tasty. (9 pagina arsenico Bolivia)

Costs

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Plants and companies should prioritize the accessibility to it in terms of cost and benefits (to make a single test 4 USD and the possible cost for the device 450 USD), availability of investment and time of detection of the As.

Allowing access to technologies to indirect users

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It was previously mentioned that the indirect users are the rural and urban community members, some of whom speak native languages, so it should be considered that they have the acceptance of the biosensor, the clear understanding of its use, and the risk involved in not applying it correctly. To this end, we are working on manuals to explain its uses in native languages, because one of their concerns is the disappearance of their cultures, as they told us their language and their language may be at risk. This is the reason why they are writing manuals and brochures to explain their uses in native languages (1).

Public policies to solve the problems made visible

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The plan to make the problem visible gives reasons to the collectives, to the rural and urban community members so that the government can work on public policies to invest in environmental health. The creation of background information helps government institutions to work on projects that benefit those affected by the presence and contamination of As in water.

Educational access to synthetic biology and biotechnology

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One of the advantages of being pioneers is the direction it can take to ensure access to the correct information about Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology. Our experience in the Bolivia team is the positive impact that the correct dissemination of these sciences have. Many are in favor of Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology, this helps us to be able to apply the biosensor in the affected areas without stigmatization. However, this section is detailed in depth in EDUCATION. (10)

Legal framework to implement GMOs in Bolivia

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Our country does not have a legal framework for the release of GMOs in the environment. That is, the bioremediation methods that are intended to work in the future need clear regulation. While exploring in public institutions we learned that activists who are against biotechnology were promoting the creation of a bill that contemplates elements that are very restrictive for the use of Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology in Bolivia. Dr. Maria Mercedes Roca together with Dr. Fernando Asturizaga helped us with observations and criticisms of the framework that is intended to be carried out. This is a future challenge that we have to face in our nascent awakening for biotechnology and synthetic biology in Bolivia. (articulo de periodico11)

References:

1. Nicol
2. (S/f-b). Igem.org. Recuperado el 7 de octubre de 2021, de https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2017/7/73/T--Peshawar--MAX-Code.txt
3. Ninon toxina y antitoxina
4. De Loma, J., Gliga, A. R., Levi, M., Ascui, F., Gardon, J., Tirado, N., & Broberg, K. (2020). Arsenic exposure and cancer-related proteins in urine of indigenous Bolivian women. Frontiers in Public Health, 8, 605123.
5. Aguatuya. (2016, 3 julio). Se inaugura la planta de tratamiento de aguas residuales de Curubamba, en Sacaba. https://aguatuya.org/noticia/se-inaugura-la-planta-de-tratamiento-de-aguas-residuales-de-curubamba-en-sacaba
6. Simes, L. E. (2021). Manual de Bioseguridad Y Bioprotección: En Ámbitos Universitarios Y Hospitalarios. Independently Published. Funes, F., Panozo, A. and Cardozo, T., 2021. [online] Unpa.edu.mx. Disponible en: [Accessed 6 October 2021].
7. Her Lizeth Rodríguez Martínez, Maribel Peña Manjarrez, Ana Victoria Gutiérrez Reyes, Cynthia Lizeth González Trevizo, Silvia Lorena Montes Fonseca, Gladys Guadalupe López Avalos. (Octubre de 2017). Biorremediación de arsénico mediada por microorganismos genéticamente modificados. Terra latinoamericana (Edo. De Méx.), 35(4), 353–361.
8. Escalera, R., Ormachea, M., Ormachea, O. y Heredia, M. (2014). Presencia natural de arsénico en aguas de pozos profundos y su remoción usando un prototipo piloto basado en colectores solares de bajo costo. Investigación & desarrollo, 2(14), 85 – 93.
9. Nico
10. Siete, P. R. D. (Ed.). (13 de junio de 2021). El proyecto de ley de OGM y una moratoria. Diario Página Siete. https://www.paginasiete.bo/ideas/2021/6/13/el-proyecto-de-ley-de-ogm-una-moratoria-297845.html