Difference between revisions of "Team:UC Davis"
(Prototype team page) |
(Initial Description update) |
||
| Line 7: | Line 7: | ||
<div class="column full_size" > | <div class="column full_size" > | ||
| − | <h2> | + | <h2> Description</h2> |
| − | <p> | + | <p>We’ve come to expect vivid colors in our food, however, with the current push against synthetic food dyes, some of the bright colors we’ve all learned to love may soon start to disappear. These changes stem from uncertainty about the safety of synthetic food colors in relation to human health, both short term and long term. Although some of the controversy pertaining synthetic food colorings and health is not conclusive, the FDA and an overwhelming amount of consumers are placing increasing pressure on corporations to rid their products of artificial colors. Recently, large corporations such as Mars, Kraft, General Mills, and Nestle USA have promised to use all natural food coloring by 2020. However, switching this market to natural food colorings has provided numerous issues. The current market of natural food colorings is limited in both the cultivation, vibrancy, and color range. For example, the spice turmeric is commonly used to replace yellow dyes. Not only does turmeric cultivation require arable land, since it is such a small market it is subject to dramatic market fluctuations – between late 2009 and 2011 the price of turmeric rose about $100 per kilogram. The natural alternative to red dyes is carmine, which is the ground scales of certain Porphyrophora species which clearly provides consumer concerns because the dye is not Halal or vegan. Grass organisms, like Spirulina provided a promising alternative; however, the lack of color vibrancy is significantly inhibiting it’s use. Color is an intrinsic aspect of our lives and essential to how we perceive food and our goal is to keep this standard for generations to come. |
| + | Here, we seek to use synthetic biology to remove the use of arable land for synthetic dye production, lessen consumer concerns, and bring market stability to a multi-billion dollar industry. Our plan involves harvesting the color capabilities of cyanobacteria to provide a viable alternative to synthetic dyes. In our project, we aimed to optimize production of our colored proteins and expand the available spectrum to match current industry standards.</p> | ||
</div> | </div> | ||
Revision as of 17:36, 1 July 2016
Description
We’ve come to expect vivid colors in our food, however, with the current push against synthetic food dyes, some of the bright colors we’ve all learned to love may soon start to disappear. These changes stem from uncertainty about the safety of synthetic food colors in relation to human health, both short term and long term. Although some of the controversy pertaining synthetic food colorings and health is not conclusive, the FDA and an overwhelming amount of consumers are placing increasing pressure on corporations to rid their products of artificial colors. Recently, large corporations such as Mars, Kraft, General Mills, and Nestle USA have promised to use all natural food coloring by 2020. However, switching this market to natural food colorings has provided numerous issues. The current market of natural food colorings is limited in both the cultivation, vibrancy, and color range. For example, the spice turmeric is commonly used to replace yellow dyes. Not only does turmeric cultivation require arable land, since it is such a small market it is subject to dramatic market fluctuations – between late 2009 and 2011 the price of turmeric rose about $100 per kilogram. The natural alternative to red dyes is carmine, which is the ground scales of certain Porphyrophora species which clearly provides consumer concerns because the dye is not Halal or vegan. Grass organisms, like Spirulina provided a promising alternative; however, the lack of color vibrancy is significantly inhibiting it’s use. Color is an intrinsic aspect of our lives and essential to how we perceive food and our goal is to keep this standard for generations to come. Here, we seek to use synthetic biology to remove the use of arable land for synthetic dye production, lessen consumer concerns, and bring market stability to a multi-billion dollar industry. Our plan involves harvesting the color capabilities of cyanobacteria to provide a viable alternative to synthetic dyes. In our project, we aimed to optimize production of our colored proteins and expand the available spectrum to match current industry standards.
Before you start:
Please read the following pages:
Styling your wiki
You may style this page as you like or you can simply leave the style as it is. You can easily keep the styling and edit the content of these default wiki pages with your project information and completely fulfill the requirement to document your project.
While you may not win Best Wiki with this styling, your team is still eligible for all other awards. This default wiki meets the requirements, it improves navigability and ease of use for visitors, and you should not feel it is necessary to style beyond what has been provided.
Wiki template information
We have created these wiki template pages to help you get started and to help you think about how your team will be evaluated. You can find a list of all the pages tied to awards here at the Pages for awards link. You must edit these pages to be evaluated for medals and awards, but ultimately the design, layout, style and all other elements of your team wiki is up to you!
Editing your wiki
On this page you can document your project, introduce your team members, document your progress and share your iGEM experience with the rest of the world!
Tips
This wiki will be your team’s first interaction with the rest of the world, so here are a few tips to help you get started:
- State your accomplishments! Tell people what you have achieved from the start.
- Be clear about what you are doing and how you plan to do this.
- You have a global audience! Consider the different backgrounds that your users come from.
- Make sure information is easy to find; nothing should be more than 3 clicks away.
- Avoid using very small fonts and low contrast colors; information should be easy to read.
- Start documenting your project as early as possible; don’t leave anything to the last minute before the Wiki Freeze. For a complete list of deadlines visit the iGEM 2016 calendar
- Have lots of fun!
Inspiration
You can also view other team wikis for inspiration! Here are some examples:
Uploading pictures and files
You can upload your pictures and files to the iGEM 2016 server. Remember to keep all your pictures and files within your team's namespace or at least include your team's name in the file name.
When you upload, set the "Destination Filename" to Team:YourOfficialTeamName/NameOfFile.jpg. (If you don't do this, someone else might upload a different file with the same "Destination Filename", and your file would be erased!)
