BY AISHWURIYA KUNASHANKAR & SAARANI VENGADESEN
WHAT do you get when you put a bioplastic expert, a microalgae specialist, and a cancer researcher together? A Marimo. Read further to know how a multidisciplinary team is moving from the concept stage to a proposed sustainable plan that can play a role in reducing environmental footprint. The Petri Dish interviewed three finalists of the flagship project Chrysalis Award, organised by the Young Scientists Network-Academy Sciences of Malaysia (YSN-ASM).
When Dr Hii Ling Wei, a cancer researcher from International Medical University (IMU) was teamed up with a microalgae and a bioplastic researcher in a competition to develop a multidisciplinary research concept, she was clueless on how to contribute her expertise and also in understanding the other research areas.
[ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”block” ihc_mb_who=”unreg” ihc_mb_template=”3″ ]
The other two researchers managed to fit in faster as they saw a synergy. Ph.D. candidate from Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), Leong Wai Hong’s work is on using microalgae to treat wastewater and then produce fertiliser and biodiesel as the end product, among other potentially valuable compounds. Dr Aishah Mohd Marsin, biomaterial expert from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) was working on enhancing biomass extract into usable bioprocess product.
After listening attentively to both researchers who wanted to work on microalgae that could treat wastewater better than the current bacteria used, Hii only had one question, “What is the main challenge in this research?”
“Making the microalgae thrive in a toxic environment, as wastewater contains various kind of harmful compounds,” explained Leong who became the winner of 2021 YSN-ASM Chrysalis Award..
“How about making the microalgae tolerant to the toxic environment through gene editing?” asked Hii, offering the tool that she uses in her cancer research.
That was the perfect fit and the three researchers moved on to proposed on the concept and methodology. They worked on a concept to integrate gene-edited microalgae into Special-Magnetic-driven Microalgae Biomass Recovery Technology (SMART) to treat wastewater and also produce biofuel as a byproduct.
Hii elaborated further that CRISPR technology can be optimised in microalgae to study the function of the particular gene and develop it according to industrial application. They identified the dominant strain in the Indah Water wastewater system which is Chlorella sp. and the cancer expert, found that it is possible to bioengineer the microalgae strain to create effective photosynthetic biomass production.
Meanwhile, Leong being a microalgae expert gave his input to ease the cultivation and harvesting of microalgal systems as there is no universal harvesting technique for microalgae. Microalgae harvesting is a challenging process as microalgal cells are small and carry a negative surface charge.
“The conventional methods such as centrifugation and filtration consume a lot of time,” said Leong who synthesised nano-magnetized biopolymer beads for the harvesting process because nanomaterials have a high surface volume to ratio, high sensitivity, reactivity, high adsorption capacity with ease of functionalization which makes them suitable for wastewater treatment.
Since microalgae technology for wastewater treatment is already common in certain countries, Leong wanted to bring in the “wow factor” by introducing the idea of Marimo Moss Ball which is a type of spherical algae commonly found in Japan and Australia.
He said: “The sphere shape of the magnetic nano biopolymer bead was inspired by Marimo Moss Ball. The ball structure makes it easier for cells and water to separate, easing the cultivation process. On another note, nanotechnology is a new paradigm that needs to be explored in wastewater treatment since it is found to be effective in eliminating several pollutants such as heavy metals and pathogens that cause diseases like cholera and typhoid,” he added.
Leong also bagged the first prize for the individual presentation in the Chrysalis Award.
Aishah’s role in this research is similar to adding icing on a beautiful cake as she focused on the by-product of the wastewater system, bioplastic. Being an expert in starch and bioplastic, she identified that microalgae have polysaccharides, a form of starch that can be turned into bioplastic.
“The bioplastic invented is less likely to cause toxic effects to humans since the microalgae detoxifies toxic waste. The invention of bioplastic does not only make the project environmentally friendly but also profitable which turns out to be an attractive selling point to pitch big funders.
“Creating public awareness in reducing plastic usage and increase usage of bioplastic is also an important element”, said Aishah.
All of them believe that the Chrysalis Award competition is an eye-opener to cross boundaries and working with experts in other fields synergistically is possible.
“Participating in this competition and using my expertise to help create a sustainable environment helped me to break the stereotype that IMU is only known as a medical university”, said Hii.
The young scientists attribute their success to their mentor Prof Dr Denny Ng Kok Sum from Heriott Watt University Malaysia. There was so much downtime during their research as both Aishah and Hii are young mothers and weekends are their golden time to spend with their family.
Hii and Aishah are the only two young working mothers among the 15 finalists in the competition. Apart from juggling between their family, work, and competition, now these three passionate scientists are working hard to materialize their dream company, Marimo Bioplastic, as this project still remains as a concept and is yet to be implemented. This flagship leadership programme is sponsored by Merck Malaysia, ViTrox Corporation Berhad, and Clinical Research Malaysia. The team is hopeful to secure grants from stakeholders who are interested to fund this project.
“Being confined in a medical working landscape, I see this project as a ‘one health approach’ as the quality of water plays a huge role in our health”, said Hii.
“Be brave, be bold and come out of your comfort zone to achieve your goals”, said Aishah as her key takeaway message.[/ihc-hide-content]
