Nickel plays a vital role in human civilization, underpinning everything from rockets to cars. Without it, technological progress would grind to a halt, and the society as we know could collapse.

Figure 1: Nickel is crucial in rocket construction

Extracted from deep within the Earth, nickel drives the advancement of human world. However, once fully exploited, it often fails to be properly recycled and drifts into water bodies, causing severe environmental issues. More concerning, given the current consumption situation and the world's nickel reserves, we will run out of nickel by 2118.

Figure 2: Consumption of nickel

Figure 3: We will soon run out of nickel

Therefore, Fudan iGEM is committed to using synthetic biology to recover nickel from the environment and transform it into microparticles, addressing both the environmental pollution and resource depletion. Our project, MINERAL, was born out of this mission.

Figure 4: Our project MINERAL

We use Escherichia coli as our chassis and introduce three modules to realize our ambition. For nickel uptake. We have introduced the nickel transporter protein NixA and Nik into E. coli to ensure the nickel absorption specificity. Next, we introduced two metallothioneins, MTA and Hpn to ensure our Ecoli can survive in harsh environments of heavy metal ions.

Figure 5: Nickel uptake and survival

Finally, our centerpiece: the Nickel Microfactory. By targeting oxygen-tolerant hydrogenase to carboxysomes, our Nickel Microfactory reduces nickel ions to microparticles in the presence of hydrogen. We have also established a symbiotic E. coli-cyanobacteria system for hydrogen production via photosynthesis.

Figure 6: Nickel Microfactory

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MINERAL demonstrates extraordinary creativity, and the same principles can be applied to other heavy metals, building a bridge between nature and human society through synthetic biology.

View our promotion video at https://video.igem.org/w/d1795b71-2707-4eeb-92ce-5b88145ef1a3