Overview

Food fermentation is practiced by every culture in the world, and is especially widespread throughout the Indian subcontinent. Although fermentation enriches foods with some essential vitamins and amino acids, many regions of the subcontinent still suffer from high malnutrition. We are addressing this problem by engineering S. cerevisiae and lactobacilli, commonly found in Indian fermented rice dishes, to enrich foods with vitamins A, B2, and B12, and bioavailable iron. We also implemented a differentiation system for reducing the fitness cost of over-expression of multiple pathways, and an easy E. coli sensor for measuring vitamin concentration using a riboswitch. Our user-centered approach incorporates a low-cost and open hardware framework, both for growing and distributing starter cultures, and for quality control. This will give local affected populations power over their own food, as opposed to other GMO nutritional enrichment strategies, by allowing them to grow their own source of vitamins.

Plan

• Motivation, facts, golden rice…
• Presentation of the system
• Manufacturing
  We created an organism made to be grown at home. The act of homegrowing micro-organisms is nothing new, as can be seen with vinegar or yoghurt. What resources does it take to start cultivating an artificial organism? To answer this question, we rang at the door of our favourite fablab in Paris, the OpenLab. We combined modern DIY technologies, traditional handicraft and repurposed home equipment to imagine easily accessible hardware for growing synbio products. This collection of devices aims to inspire Indian people who want to overcome malnutrition by themselves, without relying on anybody else. We also hope to give ideas to future iGEM teams who want to see their products leave the lab and reach the real world.
• From the lab to the world
  When going from labs lead by specialists to the users community, a lot of technical challenges arise. When inventing new biotechnological devices, biologists have access to biosafety cabinets, powerful freezers and autoclaves, but the people who need our product the most won't have these. For a biological product to leave the benches and actually reach the population, it's essential to foresee its life in the hands of the people who will cultivate it and make sure it stays alive all along. Here, we provide strategies to create an durable, usable product.
• Microbial dynamics
• Vitamins/Phytase/Riboswitch
• Human practices
• Rest