Homework

Week 01 HW: Principles and Practices
Q1) First, describe a biological engineering application or tool you want to develop and why. This could be inspired by an idea for your HTGAA class project and/or something for which you are already doing in your research, or something you are just curious about. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a type of chemical linked to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, neurological disorders, and cancer. Harmful levels of these chemicals are commonly released into the air by many modern indoor building materials and everyday products, making them especially a serious health hazard to construction and renovation workers who deal with paints, varnishes, and adhesives (among others) in indoor, confined workspaces. Currently, my team (The BTHS Inventeam) is working on a solution that would use bacteria to metabolize captured VOCs and release them as harmless gases. One of our possible ideas is to genetically engineer the bacterial strain(s) we use to increase their effectiveness by enhancing the pathways that the bacteria use to metabolize VOCs.