Our preliminary research sought to answer the question, "What major environmental and health problems affect people today?" An important aspect of a biological engineering project is to first start with a problem that people want to have solved. Upon discussing this, we came up with more poignant and open-ended questions: "What problem are we trying to solve? What current methods exist in addressing the problem, and what new approaches might be tried? How does engineering biology provide a tool, or act as a component in a larger plan of action to solve the problem? Is engineering biology a necessary or desirable approach in this solution?

Before attempting any wet-lab work, or making any major design considerations, we considered these questions carefully. Our process of asking these questions, reaching out to doctors, and looking at current synthetic biology solutions were crucial in helping us determine the direction of our project. On this page, we’ll discuss the questions we asked ourselves and others, and how we decided to pursue our project.