iGEM 2015 team Amsterdam
Amsterdam's iGEM project was to develop of a stable synthetic consortium (multispecies ecosystem) consisting of engineered phototrophic cyanobacteria, and chemotropic E.coli bacteria. This kind of consortium could allow in the future the conversion carbon dioxide into bio-based products with the energy of sunlight, without the need for arable land or fossil fuels. The team envisioned two application scenarios, large-scale biorefinery for the production of fuels such as butanol, and small scale bioreactors with which for example farms and individual households could produce a range of products, such as food and feed supplements. During this phase they interviewed experts in the field of industrial biotechnology in business and academia, about current obstacles and future perspectives. Their technomoral scenario comes in a form of a fictive future newspaper cover and two short stories, exploring effects of this type of production at the level of individual lives.