UCLA Civil and Environmental Engineering Associate Professor and Samueli Fellow, Dr. Shaily Mahendra, and Professor of Biological Chemistry and Associate Director of CNSI, Dr. Leonard Rome, developed a new technique to, “use enzymes to remove pollutants from water that is cost- and energy-efficient, able to remove multiple pollutants at once, and minimizes risks to public health and the environment.

Current methods require multiple steps and involve chemicals that react to heat, sunlight or electricity. Scientists previously had shown that polluted water could be cleaned using enzymatic activities of naturally occurring bacteria and fungi, which breaks down pollutants into their harmless chemical components. But that method carries the risk of releasing dangerous organisms into the water.”

Also working on this project as well as the first author on the publication describing this method is Civil and Environmental Engineering Doctoral Candidate Meng Wang.

Read the full article here: bit.ly/1P3KezX