Context
After identifying Vitamin A deficiency as a potential problem that could be solved using synthetic biology we were immediately drawn to the use of synthetic bacteria. As our researched continued we decided to base our idea on producing a yogurt enriched with β-carotene. Our initial idea was that, since yogurt is a staple food (and a way to conserve milk) in many parts of the world (including India for example), we could help in providing a sustainable way of generating vitamin A. Along with this we also wanted to provide a simple means of of producing our yogurt and so plans were put into place to design an accessible yogurt maker. As both parts of our project are targeted in limited resource areas, we began to sought out and consult with experts in these fields.
Consulting Experts - Andrew Prentice
Andrew Prentice is Professor of International Nutrition, currently working in The Gambia as a part of the MRC International Nutrition Group. Recently he has been working on the epigenetic impact of maternal nutrition on the offspring’s genome.
Early on during the project, we wanted to gain some insight into how our project would work in the real world. We contacted Andrew Prentice and set up a skype chat. Professor Prentice gave us a realistic, down-to-earth opinion on our project, explaining to us some potential barriers that we would go on to look into, including working with the target population, getting yogurt producers opinions and GMO regulation which may affect distribution of our product.
We found this skype call extremely useful in giving us a more grounded exception of our project as well as providing us with further issues to research as explained above
Further Consulting
This conversation prompted us to try and get feedback about our idea from several other iGEM teams in the locations we were targeting. In particular, we focused efforts on 3 Indian iGEM teams, to get to understand the target population better. Unfortunately, the logistics of establishing conversations failed on numerous occasions.
We decided at this point to switch out efforts and focus on getting feedback on our accessible yogurt maker. Initially we made contact with Dr Srinivasa Chakrawarthy Ravuri, a renewable energy engineer based in India. He confirmed that India are “prolific users of solar cookers” and “the weather is eminently suitable for our work”.
Following this we hoped to engage with yogurt producers, however this did not follow through. During our searches, we were directed to an association working on solar technology, Gosol. As our accessible yogurt maker would be powered through solar technology, we made contacting Gosol our next priority.
Gosol
Gosol is an organisation based in Finland which is a leader in solar technology. Initially we got in touch with them due to their experience in using this technology in some low-to-middle-income countries such as Kenya. We highly valued their expertise and advice on our project, which included comments around the distribution of our product on an international scale as well as some possible design alterations that would improve multifunctionality.
