RNA carries the day at Erie Hack competition seeking solutions to harmful algal blooms, other water issues

RNA Power

A first generation "auto sampler" shown here at a lake in Texas. The equipment could be used to take water from Lake Erie and preserve RNA that could then be used to detect the potential for harmful algal blooms.

CLEVELAND, Ohio – RNA was critical to the discovery of a coronavirus vaccine, and now the genetic messenger may be used to protect Lake Erie from harmful algal blooms.

A team developing a way to preserve and analyze RNA to aid in the detection of toxins in algae won the $30,000 top prize at the 2021 Erie Hack competition, which is designed to promote innovative solutions to pressing water-related issues.

RNA can be a great source of information – because, unlike DNA, it shows what cells are actually doing – but it’s only useful if it can be preserved long enough to analyze.

If that can be achieved, researchers should be able to detect whether algae will produce toxins, how much, and whether those toxins will be released from cells and become harmful, said John Higley, a molecular biologist and leader of the winning team, RNA Power.

“If you know it’s going to be a crisis before it’s a crisis there are ways that you can intervene,” said Higley, who is chief executive of EQO, a Texas firm that has done work in the Great Lakes related to invasive and endangered species and has a business development office in Cleveland.

Higley said after the competition that the $30,000 will be used to decide where sampling stations should be located around the western basin of Lake Erie, which is where the harmful algal blooms have been an ongoing threat in recent years.

Those stations will collect water samples, he said, and then a “chemical concoction” will be used to preserve RNA that would otherwise break down and be useless within an hour.

Erie Hack is sponsored by the Cleveland Water Alliance and other organizations in Toledo, Buffalo, Detroit and Windsor, Canada. The competition began with dozens of teams competing in regional quarterfinals in October.

Tony Brown, voice of the Cleveland Monsters minor league hockey team, hosted the Thursday finals on Zoom. Six teams were given 10 minutes to make their pitches followed by five minutes of questioning by the judges.

“They were all impressive and I think they all have the potential to do great things” to address concerns about Lake Erie, said Angelique Salizan, Ohio policy and outreach manager with the Alliance for the Great Lakes and one of the Erie Hack judges.

Helpful plants

The other big winner at the Erie Hack final was Agri-Tech Ohio, which received $18,000 for coming in second.

Agri-Tech is developing a process called “combined remediation biomass and bi-product production” that involves planting a fast-growing variety of sorghum capable of extracting significant amounts of phosphorus and nitrogen from the soil and carbon dioxide from the air.

Agri-Tech plans to use its winnings to plant “biomass sorghum” among the farms in the western watershed of Lake Erie, said Agri-Tech CEO Joseph James.

Phosphorus is a major ingredient in fertilizer and a primary contributor to the growth of harmful algal blooms because it runs off farms and into the Maumee River, which flows across Northwest Ohio and into Lake Erie at Toledo.

Biomass sorghum can be planted in areas to absorb harmful nutrients in the soil, but it can also be grown on floating mats. In such instances, the nutrients would be absorbed directly from the water.

Agri-Tech’s pitch has a second component that includes harvesting the sorghum after it has absorbed the various chemicals and using it to make useful products, such as a clean alternative to the carbon black used in tires.

super sorghum

Agri-Tech Ohio wants to use biomass sorghum to extract carbon dioxide from the air and unwanted phosphorus and nitrogen from the soil.

The four other finalists were:

· Water Warriors, which is developing a “Poseidon” pellet that can absorb phosphorus and ammonia in water. The contents of the pellet were not divulged, but they would optimally be 2 to 4 millimeters in size. After the pellets absorb the nutrients, they could then be spread on farms as fertilizer.

* Life Magnetics, which is working on a process to transfer and store RNA taken from water samples and to use a magnet to separate the RNA from other materials after binding it with carbon.

* Blue Lion Labs, which is developing a “microfluidic” chip to detect toxins in water.

* Curbing Sediment, which is creating alternative designs for curbs and aprons that will reduce the volume of pollutants being washed down street drains and into sewers.

Although Curbing Sediment didn’t win one of the big prizes, it was separately awarded $2,500 by Cleveland Metroparks, which sponsored a so-called mini-challenge related to keeping road salt from getting into sewers.

Alternative patterns on the apron and various notches and cuts in the curbs would collect sediment and other pollutants that could then be removed by a street cleaners or different maintenance strategies, said Halina Steiner, an Ohio State University professor and member of Curbing Sediment, said after the competition.

Curbing Sediment

A team that includes Ohio State University professors, proposes new designs for curbs and aprons that would collect sediment and pollutants before they enter a storm sewer.

Water Warriors also won a min-challenge sponsored by the Rotary Club of Toledo and received $5,000. The challenge had to do with capturing nutrients in farm run-off and then reusing them.

The Rotary Club of Toledo also gave $5,000 to a team called I Love Lake Erie for addressing the “The Data Mining to Support Water Quality Investigations Mini Challenge.”

The Cleveland Water Alliance and the Glow Partnership gave $1000 to a team called Let’s Float Some Sensors on the Lake for addressing the “The Water Sensor Kit Mini Challenge.”

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