Team:Paris Saclay

Project Abstract: This is not a lemon!

Our perception and conception of things are highly dependent on the social-cultural context we live in. For example, some human beings were once considered as merchandise, belonging to another person who could choose whether they should live or die. Nowadays this is totally unacceptable, as our definition of what is a human being has profoundly changed.

Synthetic Biology has the power of potentially changing paradigms of society such as our conception of what living beings are. If we deprive bacteria from all their “unnecessary" functions and have them produce what we need and desire, do these bacteria still possess the status of living organisms or have they become machines? To raise and explore this question, we adopted an artistic approach. Indeed, we think that Bio-Art is one of the best ways to reach the citizens and to spark debate and reflection.

We decided to create a concept organism that would reflect these interrogations. We plan to modify Escherichia coli in order to produce the fragrance of a lemon and simulate the ripening process of a lemon by changing its color gradually from green to yellow. A mixture of bacteria and solid growth medium will be moulded in a lemon shape: it will smell like a lemon, ripe like a lemon and look like a lemon, but "ceci n’est pas un citron” - this is not a lemon… or is it?

With this project we invite everyone to think about the upcoming opportunities and the necessary ethical limits of designing living beings.

When iGEM Paris Saclay gives you lemons, break your taboos!

We are social!

Follow our tweets by [http://www.twitter.com/iGEMParisSaclay @iGEMParisSaclay], check our photos on [http://instagram.com/igemparis @iGEMParis] and be updated with our news on [http://www.facebook.com/IgemParisSaclay2012 iGEMParisSaclay]'s wall.

Countdown

This page is under Fabio's responsibility.

• Deadline: 07/oct.
  • Resize of elements in this page
  • Put the logo in a bigger size in the center of the screen
  • Publish the abstract in all languages
• Deadline: 09/oct
  • Text Review
• Deadline: 12/oct
  • Final review