Team:IISc-Bangalore/Ideate
Step 2: Ideate
Next, we asked ourselves what we regard as one of the most fundamental questions for any team during the iGEM cycle - Is synthetic biology a good solution to our problem?
Literature reviews led us to other methods to combat organophosphate toxicity. We noted that they either involved highly toxic reagents themselves or were impractical. It is impossible, for example, to spray an insoluble powdery chemical over vast expanses of water bodies to precipitate the dissolved organophosphates out of water!
We started to brood over the possibility of using the concept used for Aqualose - a bacterial cellulose based filter to combat organophosphate pollution.
Before designing our project, based on inputs from various stakeholders, we enlisted the characteristics which our proposed solution should have:
- Cheap and affordable
- Efficient
- Not generate more pollutants
- Biodegradable to the extent possible
- Easy to use
- Scalable