Team:Lethbridge HS/Description
SynthetINK is our solution to the harmful byproducts of the ink production industry. We have created constructs that can be put into cells which will then use the DNA to produce enzymes which can make pigments. These pigments can then be used to create inks. We will be using these to create inks without the production of all of the harmful byproducts of the current manufacturing processes. We chose to work on this problem because it seemed relevant in all of our lives, as students we use ink frequently, and after communications with the general public we found out that it is almost universally used very often. After looking into ink manufacturing, we found that it is very harmful to the environment and the most serious part was the colorant and in our case the pigment. We decided to use synthetic biology to solve this problem because it will be effortless to continually produce the pigments as cells are self-replicating if provided with a food source. The use of synthetic biology also allows us to create the pigments without any of the harmful byproducts that current processes create.
