Throughout the summer, we have imagined a disruptive product that we believe will be a step forward for solving malnutrition.
We repurposed fermentation for creating nutrionally enhanced food
We created an modified strain of E. coli that produces vitamin B2 to high levels, and built a vector for allowing Lactococcus, an endogenous micro-organism of idli, to produce the vitamin as well.
We measured the overproduction of vitamin A by an engineered strain of S. cerevisiae, and showed that this does not significantly impair its growth. We demonstrated that backslopping of engineered strains is possible.
We re-engineered the microbiome of traditional Indian dishes, and proved that an exogenous organism with high vitamin production can be introduced in idli.
We proved the safety of our product by proving that no micro-organism survives cooking, bringing new opportunities to the GMO debate.
We designed a truly sustainable solution
We found effective, easily acceptable solutions for manufacturing, distribution and conservation of microbial products,
We designed and constructed a community-centric synthetic biology framework for nutrient-producing microbes,
We shown that our manufacturing process is accessible even to people with minimal resources,
We designed a device to detect vitamin B12 in food that is way cheaper than its analytical chemistry counterparts
We identified the needs of the target population and provided feasible solutions
We got promising feedback from Indian people, researchers and officials, including the former Director of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and founder of IGIB,
We successfully defended our project in front of a citizen review commitee,
We shown that rice is often the only resource people have, so our design will be an effective solution for them, as it can be manufactured with only rice water,
We got a lot of citizen involvement and gathered more than fifty sale promises proving the high acceptance of our product by the community.
