The general laboratory protocols of all labs at the University of Illinois prioritize both researcher and environmental safety. The Institute of Genomic Biology is secured by a proximity card system, minimizing any undesirable public exposure. These same precautions also keep the research environment isolated and free of non-laboratory standard entities. If there is ever any sort of hazardous incident, regardless of its level of permeation within or outside of biosafety areas, the University has campus wide alert measures already in place. This system, the Illini-Alert, is capable of informing the entire student and faculty body within seconds via SMS and e-mail.
That being said, our projects have no focus on toxins or dangerous reagents otherwise stated in our protocols, which are reagents present in most genetics labs operating under biosafety level 2 conditions. In regards to researcher safety, all team members and advisors have been trained and certified to work within closed-door biosafety level 2 labs. Although the organisms we worked with (E. Coli) are classified as biosafety level 1, our facilities operate under level 2 conditions.
The protein that our main project utilizes has an affinity for certain mRNA sequences and is able to inhibit processes as such. The containment, manipulation, and disposal of our samples and subjects are handled the same way as any other active biological agent. Following standard protocols and working in a biosafety level 2 lab, our procedures minimize environmental contact as well.
Our new biobrick parts do not raise any safety issues. The protein that we work with binds site-specifically and cleaves single stranded RNA, which means that its safety is approximately equivalent to that of restriction enzymes. The PUF protein itself is harmless in the environment. In addition, the PUF gene is not cloned into mammalian expression vectors, so it cannot be expressed even if it were to enter mammalian cells. Our gene does not produce any toxins, and the organisms that we used to test our gene are not infectious. In the unlikely case that the PUF gene were to be expressed in mammalian cells, it could have potential translational modification effects.
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