Product Development & Manufacturing
Product Overview
Our LIT bulb is powered by the co-culture of two types of cells: Cyanobacteria and engineered E.coli cells. Both cell types have been programmed to symbiotically coexist and produce enough luminescence to light up a street on a nightly basis. Cyanobacteria will be engineered to secrete the glucose product from photosynthesis, thus they would be unable to sustain their growth when competing against other microbes in the environment if they were to be released.
How the LIT bulb works
Figure 1: Components of the LIT bulb designd with Pictochart
When sunlight is present the biological switches present in our cells become repressed and luminescence is not produced from our cells. Oppositely, during the evening when light is not present, our biological switches become activated and luminescence is produced. As such, the LIT bulb is fully automated. We used Cyanobacteria cells, which photosynthesise, to produce the nutrients required by the E.coli cells to luminesce; and relied upon the E.coli cells’ respiration to provide the nutrients required for the continued survival of the Cyanobacterial cells.We then created a unique LIT bulb design which allowed for uniform lighting while at the same time maintained the correct conditions needed for the continued survival of the two cell types.
Design considerations
Our original idea was to create genetically engineered cells that would not require any electrical or mechanical input to keep cells suspended in a culture. However, we soon realised we would be facing homogeneity issues due to heat and nutrient transfer if we did not come up with a design that could continuously re-suspend our cells inside our lightbulb. So we invented that too. We created a rotor that gently moves the cell cultures around such that they are always in correct suspension and equilibrium. We also considered the high energy strain of the cells due to luminescence production, temporary/limited food source, robustness/safety/biocontainment, permeability to oxygen (gas exchange) and human perception.