George Georgiou

New Strategies for Designing Inexpensive but Selective Bioadsorbants for Environmental Pollutants: Selection of specific Ligands and Their Cell Surface Expression

The Broad, long term objective of the research plan is to develop exquisitely selective polypeptide metal chelators for the remediation of aqueous systems. A variety of polypeptide chelators will be developed and optimized ranging from antibodies to small peptides. Then, through unique molecular engineering approaches developed in our laboratories, the polypeptide chelators will be anchored directly on the surface of the cells that produce them. Thus, instead of using isolated biomolecules we will employ inexpensive genetically engineered whole cell adsorbents. Following a simple, easily scaleable treatment, the engineered cells can be used to manufacture an inexpensive, particulate adsorbent for metal removal.