Team:Technion-Israel
Our achievements:
- Gold medal
- Nominated for Best Education and Public Engagement
Honeybees produce honey to make the flower's nectar more digestible and well-preserved, using various enzymes secreted in their honey stomach. The honey possesses unique properties that make it highly attractive in fields such as medicine, cosmetics, and the food industry. Nowadays, the honey industry depends on honey produced by bees, which harms them and their natural social structure.
Our vision is to create a sustainable "BeeFree" honey using engineered bacteria, which will process a nectar-like solution using secreted enzymes that mimic the honey stomach environment.
The engineered bacteria will be separated from the final product using membrane-based capsules, providing the bacteria's favorable growth medium inside the capsule, while allowing enzyme secretion to the external "nectar" solution. We have also designed a synthetic circuit that will regulate the transcription of the essential enzymes, enabling us to control the final composition of our BeeFree Honey and tailor it to desired applications.
