VATIS UPDATE Article

Researchers from University of Calgary, Canada, have found a way to program algae with bacterial genes to target unwanted chemicals and pharmaceuticals that end up in wastewater. Lee Jackson, scientific director of the Advancing Canadian Wastewater Assets (ACWA) research facility, and Joenel Alcantara with the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Cumming School of Medicine, are planning to patent their new biotechnology shortly, once they conduct a few more tests. “This has huge potential,” says Jackson. “Wastewater treatment plants have not been designed to remove chemicals and drugs that benefit our daily lives, yet find their way into our wastewater.”

So far, the experiments have been conducted in the laboratory where Alcantara and Jackson have successfully implanted into algae bacterial genes that will break down antibiotics, pesticides and herbicides.

They are currently testing versions that will target birth control drugs and commonly used antibiotics. These compounds can enter river systems through municipal wastewater effluents, stormwater, veterinary processes and agricultural run-off and have been detected in several river systems around the world, including the United States and Europe. There remain unanswered questions about their potential impacts on human and aquatic health.