Chassis

The main aim of our project, is to engineer B. subtilis to sense and sequester cadmium from the environment into metallothionein containing spores, rendering it bio-unavailable.

Instead of attempting to retrieve back the sequestered cadmium from the spore, we intend to disable germination of the spores, thus retrieval of the sequestered cadmium becomes unnecessary, as the spores can persist intact for thousands of years.