Pollution-eating bugs score at Innovation Awards
Cultivating bacteria that break down industrial toxins in contaminated groundwater has won researchers the 2012 UNSW Innovation Award.
Cultivating bacteria that break down industrial toxins in contaminated groundwater has won researchers the 2012 UNSW Innovation Award.
Cultivating bacteria that break down industrial toxins in contaminated groundwater has won researchers the 2012 UNSW Innovation Award.
The team, led by Associate Professor Mike Manefield of the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, isolated three naturally occurring bacterial communities that live on industrial pollutants, including chloroform.
The bacteria were bred in beer barrels and injected into a Botany aquifer near Sydney airport that had been polluted by a former ICI chemical plant.
Through a process known as bioremediation, Manefield and postdoctoral researchers Matthew Lee, Adrian Low and Joanna Koenig showed the bacteria's natural ability to degrade and clean up chlorinated solvents.
As well as the Botany project, the team is working on a polluted site in Deer Park, Melbourne. The research is being conducted in partnership with Orica, Dow Chemical and Microverse.
The annual Innovation Awards are organised by the University’s commercialisation company, New South Innovations (NSi), to recognise outstanding innovation conducted by UNSW staff and students. This year a total of seven research projects have been honoured:
Dr Kevin Cullen, chief executive officer of NSi, said the awards celebrate the integration between research excellence, outstanding creativity and the application of new knowledge.
“This is what universities do – stretch the limits of human knowledge and think of ways to put this new knowledge to work,” Dr Cullen said.
Media Contact: Frank Walker, UNSW Media Office, 0417 090 346