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Brilliant bacterial biominerals: From early Earth survival to modern biotech solutions

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Dates:5 December 2018
Times:13:00 - 14:00
What is it:Seminar
Organiser:Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Who is it for:University staff, Current University students
Speaker:Professor Vernon Phoenix
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  • School of Earth and Environmental Sciences

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  • In category "Seminar"
  • By Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences

Our speaker is Professor Vernon Phoenix from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Strathclyde.

Bacteria play a key role in the generation of minerals, either via metabolic processes or via acting as nucleation sites. This important role in mineral formation has existed since the very first bacteria evolved on Earth billions of years ago. The formation of bacterially generated minerals (biominerals) can provide significant advantages, either to the bacteria

that have generated them, or by us where we can use them in a range of (bio)technologies.  For example, the first 

photosynthesising bacteria which evolved on Earth many billions of years ago had to live in a hostile environment bathed with extremely harmful doses of ultraviolet radiation. The fossil record demonstrates that these organisms were encrusted in amorphous silica coatings, likely a result of the rich silica content of the oceans at that time. Our work has shown how these silica coatings acted as a Precambrian sun-screen, blocking out harmful wavelengths of UV while allowing the light needed for photosynthesis to pass through to the organism. Thus these silica biominerals likely played a key role in enabling the oxygenation of our atmosphere. Today, biominerals can be used in a range of technologies. Our work focusses on the use of bacterially generated calcites in the civil engineering sector. Bacteria, in the presence of urea and dissolved calcium, can generate vast quantities of calcite which can be used as an alternative to cements and grouts. This can be used to seal fractures in geological disposal facilities, stabilize soil and repair building materials. Advancing on this, we are now exploring how we can tune the mechanical properties of these biominerals to generate mechanically superior materials for civil engineering applications.

Coffee and tea will be available after the seminar in the first floor foyer of the Williamson Building.

Speaker

Professor Vernon Phoenix

Role: Lecturer in Geochemistry/Geomicrobiology

Organisation: University of Strathclyde Glasgow

  • https://www.strath.ac.uk/staff/phoenixvernondr/

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G.03
Williamson Building
Manchester

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Sophie Nixon

0161-275-0760

sophie.nixon@manchester.ac.uk

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