Are microbes the future of pollution clean-up?

Environmental engineer Ludmilla Aristilde (right) and her colleagues work on developing biotechnology-led solutions to combat pollution. Credit: Benjamin Barrios-Cerda/Aristilde lab Ludmilla Aristilde has always been aware of how closely tied well-being is to the world around us. Raised in Haiti, she and her family survived two cholera outbreaks stemming from contaminated water. “These were my earliest experiences of realizing that environmental pollution and human health are linked,” she says. “I was really young at the time, but I understood this was a serious thing.” At 12 years old, she learnt that some environmental damage could be undone. On a school trip to the deforested mountains above Port-au-Prince, Aristilde and her classmates were taught about the impacts of erosion, and they helped to plant around 1,000 saplings in the bare earth overlooking the capital. “It showed us we can do something to reverse the environmental consequences of our actions,” Aristilde says. Nature Spotlight: Synthetic biology Now an environmental engineer at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, Aristilde has dedicated her career to working out ways to mitigate environmental harm. She is part of a growing community of synthetic biologists using biotechnology-led solutions to tackle pollution ranging from microplastics and industrial waste to soils laced with heavy metals or explosive residues. …