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Course Blog Projects Course 2018

Pressure Dependent Bioluminescence

concept

Our project has focused on the idea of using bioluminescence in a number of different settings. By designing a cutting-edge biologically advanced cell-free system, we are able to make use of pressure activated bioluminescence. We make use of the ‘PURE’ cell-free assembly kit to manufacture the constituent parts of the luminescent system. The system has a variety of different applications and uses in our day to day lives. We would like to design a temporary luminescent ink because instead of painting on the paper, many children prefer to paint on the white wall. It will be difficult for parents to clean the marks of pencils as well as crayons and they are everywhere. We were thinking about that in this situation, the duration of bioluminescence can be the advantage because the light will be disappeared, parents do not need to worry about cleaning.

Final artefact & Design process

The sketch(Fig.1) shows how our pen and ink worked. The user only needs to give pressure to the pen and then the pressure will activate the material. To be more specific, there is a small ball in the replacement part to keep the ink would not leak. The tip of the pen will be attached to a small cylinder through a sponge column. Upon press the replacement part to connected to the cylinder, the capsules will break by high pressure and the luminescent process will begin. In the final presentation we displayed our first prototype (Fig. 2), then we improved it into the second version (Fig. 3).

Figure 1: The diagram shows how the replacement ink attached to the cylinder

Figure 2: Photograph of our Bioluminescent ink first prototype

Figure 3: Photograph of our Bioluminescent ink second prototype

Since the bioluminescence is totally safe for skin and children and it can bright light in 24 hours which can have marks on different object surface(Fig. 4,5 ), and this will be a unique product for the child because they can draw anything they want in their home and their parents don’t need to worry about the cleaning work anymore. The reason why we decided to design the bioluminescence ink is they have a huge market as for the material and have lots of applications in the future because the bioluminescence ink can glow in a period and then fade away.

Figure 4: usage in the content

Figure 4: usage in the content

iteration

At the beginning, we want to design a Bioluminescence Life Jacket. The vest and luminescent biofilm will offer greater endurance and persistence irrespective of surroundings. Therefore we believe that the vest will offer a superlative signalling capability and to help us to save the life. In order to improve our design to fit with broader scenarios, we improved our idea into a wearable rescue device. limitations of technology pushed us to changed usage content. For example, the duration of bioluminescence, it only has 24-hours lifespan and it is quite short for emergency rescue. Then, we applied our Bioluminescence in the traditional product to create new user experiences, such as Christmas cracker. We still want to work for the emergency situation, and then we combined it with the application in our day-to-day life, it was our Self-illuminated lamp. Reverse thinking provides us with new ideas. The life cycle of material should not be considered as a limitation, it can be an advantage. Then, we decided to use materials for calligraphy, painting and temporary marking. That is our final project the Bioluminescent ink.

REFERENCE

  1. https://curiosity.com/topics/we-still-dont-know-what-causes-the-glowing-milky-sea-effect-curiosity/
  2. Kuruma, Yutetsu, and Takuya Ueda. “The PURE System for the Cell-Free Synthesis of Membrane Proteins.” Nature Protocols, vol. 10, no. 9, 2015, pp. 1328–1344., doi:10.1038/nprot.2015.082
  3. Rampioni, Giordano, and Francesca D’Angelo. “Synthetic Cells Produce a Quorum Sensing Chemical 
  4. Hall, Mary P., et al. “Engineered Luciferase Reporter from a Deep Sea Shrimp Utilizing a Novel Imidazopyrazinone Substrate.” ACS Chemical Biology, vol. 7, no. 11, 2012, pp. 1848–1857., doi:10.1021/cb3002478.
  5. Rahmanpour, R. and Bugg, T.D.H. (2013) Assembly in vitro of Rhodococcus jostii RHA1 encapsulin and peroxidase DypB to form a nanocompartment. FEBS Journal 280, 2097–2104
  6. Giessen, T.W. and Silver, P.A. (2017) Engineering carbon fixation with artificial protein organelles. Current Opinion in Biotechnology 46, 42–50