Team:LMU-Munich/Germination Stop

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The LMU-Munich team is exuberantly happy about the great success at the World Championship Jamboree in Boston. Our project Beadzillus finished 4th and won the prize for the "Best Wiki" (with Slovenia) and "Best New Application Project".

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Germination Stop

Germination Stop

The goal of our project BEADzillus is the production of Bacillus subtilis spores which display novel proteins on their outer coat. These novel proteins could be used in a variety of filtration systems, such as binding viruses out of blood, metals out of drinking water, or plastic molecules out of the marine environment. However, before introducing our filtering-spore “beads” into the environment, we must ensure that we are not simultaneously introducing a GMO capable of reproducing on its own.

Spores of B. subtilis are capable of surviving radiation, high heat, freezing, high pressure, and a variety of chemicals. When eventually presented with the right conditions, they can then germinate into vegetative B. subtilis cells. Thus, simply exposing the spores to harsh conditions does not guarantee that they will never germinate.

Our goal is to remove the germination capability, while keeping the necessary structural functions of the spores intact. We have chosen genes involved in germination, and will knock them out to yield a B. subtilis strain which produces spores incapable of germination. This will be checked with germination assays.

Further, we will investigate the possibility of using a redundant toxin system to immediately kill off any spores which somehow germinate.

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 {{:Team:LMU-Munich/Templates/Page Header|File:Team-LMU_Sidebar_Home.jpg}}'''Germination Stop'''
-Would the materials used in your project and/or your final product pose:
+==Germination Stop==
-Risks to the safety and health of team members or others in the lab?
-Risks to the safety and health of the general public if released by design or accident?
-Risks to environmental quality if released by design or accident?
-Risks to security through malicious misuse by individuals, groups or states?
-Our project doesn't raise any safety issues other than usual lab safety issues– whether for the researcher, the public or environment.
-To assure safe working practice throughout the competition, every team member participated in a general safety meeting regarding good laboratory practice and working with genetically modified organisms (GMOs), including storage and disposal. We worked only with non-hazardous, non-pathogenic organisms like ''E. coli'' (lab strains DH5 alpha or BL21) and ''B. subtilis'' (WT168). In the lab, we wear a lab coat and single-use gloves. When working with hazardous chemicals (e.g. liquid N2) we wear goggles as well. Furthermore, dangerous substances are stored and handled in designated rooms in order to assure the safety of the researchers.
-For the protection of the public and the environment against hazardous substances, all GMO-contaminated waste is inactivated by autoclavation. Before leaving the laboratory, every researcher cleans and disinfects his/her hands. Moreover, we leave the windows closed and do not discard any dangerous substances in the sink.
-Our biobricks contain inducible promotors, regulators and reporter genes. None of them are able to cause illnesses or threaten humans in any other way. Most inserts are also derived from non-pathogenic, non-hazardous organisms. The amplified and cloned fragments again belong to the GMO safety class S1.
-Strains or DNA derived from our project will not be used outside the lab. The watersamples to be tested are transported to the lab, so there is no risk of contaminating the environment with GMOs.
 The goal of our project '''BEAD'''zillus is the production of ''Bacillus subtilis'' spores which display novel proteins on their outer coat. These novel proteins could be used in a variety of filtration systems, such as binding viruses out of blood, metals out of drinking water, or plastic molecules out of the marine environment. However, before introducing our filtering-spore “beads” into the environment, we must ensure that we are not simultaneously introducing a GMO capable of reproducing on its own.