What's the problem?
Electric light isn't accessible to rural communities.
Limited Infrastructure
Communities seeking to obtain electricity typically have three requirements for the infrastructure they need.
1) It must be of high enough quality to meet their objectives
2) It must be affordable and within their budget to build
3) It must be able to reach the majority of the community.
However, in many rural and developing countries, these infrastructure requirements are not being met.
As a result, these countries face a significant financial burden in trying to provide electricity to their mostly rural communities.
Unfortunately, the return on investment is not significant enough for these
countries to feel confident in making such a high cost investment in electricity.
Therefore, finding affordable and sustainable solutions to bring electricity to these communities remains a critical challenge.
Our Solution: Genetic Engineered B. uniformis with the lux operon
We invented a new approach to lighting: utilizing a bioluminescent reaction in anaerobic bacteria.
Anaerobic bacteria die when exposed to oxygen, which allows us to use their strengths of being able to
produce such a bioluminescent reaction over time as it is a living organism as opposed to synthesized
while not worrying about any toxicity or other side effects of working with a bacteria.
1) Bacterium and Bioluminescent Gene
Isolate the anaerobic bacterium B. uniformis and obtain the lux operon gene that will be used in conjunction for a compatible bioluminescent reaction.
2) Engineering with E. coli
Using a shuttle plasmid, we engineer a plasmid within E. coli to contain the lux operon
3) Transferring for Expression
Once the gene is ready, we can transfer it for expression in B. uniformis, where the plasmid containing the bioluminescent genes will replicate with every cell division which causes our bacterium to emit a nice orange hue.
4) Luminocity Light Bulb
Finally, we insert our engineered bacterium into our bio-friendly Luminocity light bulb casing where users can now use the light for school, work, or daily tasks.
What Experts are Saying
A year ago I would have said no [Luminocity's goal wouldn't be possible], but seeing how far you can come in a year I think [Luminocity] is definitely a goal worth striving for.
Paige Whitehead
CEO & Co-Founder
This is an amazing idea.
Dr. Nafiseh Nafissi
Executive VP of R&D
With a constitutively active promoter it can be quite bright! Good luck!
Dr. Steven Hersch
Senior Scientist
Sounds like a great project!
David Gruber
Professor of Biology
It would be amazing if bioluminescence could be used as an alternative light source for regions without access to electricity. Chemical glow sticks are frequently used in situations where electricity isn’t available, so replacing these with bioluminescence seems very reasonable.
Nicole Wang
Research Scientist
Our Team
Mercedes Wolverton
Project Manager
Kaavya Kasi
Team Member
Saanvi Gambhira
Team Member
Shani Glassberg
Team Member