Valentina Perez Escobar’s LixiLab tackles heavy-metal water contamination using a biodesign approach that bridges the gap between science and real-world applications. In collaboration with a farming community located near Colombia’s main landfill site, which is affected by soil and water contamination, LixiLab designed Bacua: an on-site, portable water filter system that employs dead bacteria to cleanse water of heavy metals intended for irrigation purposes. LixiLab also addresses concerns of crop loss and animal illnesses due to metal contamination through educational workshops that raise awareness about the issues and explain the bacteria’s performance, fostering community engagement and biotechnology appropriation, contributing to the Clean Water Sustainable Development Goal.