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Team:Tuebingen/Safety
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All our work is supervised by PhD students, PhDs and professors of our university who are very experienced in lab work and are currently working in genetics. We document our work in our lab notebook to enable replicability and prevent unnecessary errors. | All our work is supervised by PhD students, PhDs and professors of our university who are very experienced in lab work and are currently working in genetics. We document our work in our lab notebook to enable replicability and prevent unnecessary errors. | ||
| - | Our project does not pose any dangers to researchers or the public: We are following widely used lab protocols in a appropriate lab facility. The organisms used in our project, namely E. coli (TOP10 strain) and S. cerevisiae, are well-known and considered safe. | + | Our project does not pose any dangers to researchers or the public: We are following widely used lab protocols in a appropriate lab facility. The organisms used in our project, namely ''E. coli'' (TOP10 strain) and ''S. cerevisiae'', are well-known and considered safe. |
Although, by building a biosensor we are tackling an environmental problem, our system is not intended to be used in the field but in a lab only. | Although, by building a biosensor we are tackling an environmental problem, our system is not intended to be used in the field but in a lab only. | ||
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We have designed 3 different types of BioBricks. Membrane bound receptors for sensing hormones, a small inverter system to regulate our reporter gene. None of these are found toxic or dangerous by any means. | We have designed 3 different types of BioBricks. Membrane bound receptors for sensing hormones, a small inverter system to regulate our reporter gene. None of these are found toxic or dangerous by any means. | ||
| - | The receptors we use are synthesized after genome-sequences of Danio rerio and Xenopus laevis, both are commonly used model organisms. The rest of the genes and promoters are extracted from the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome via PCR. All of the parts we use are expressed in wildtype organisms and not known to have any harmful effect on humans or other organisms. | + | The receptors we use are synthesized after genome-sequences of ''Danio rerio'' and ''Xenopus laevis'', both are commonly used model organisms. The rest of the genes and promoters are extracted from the ''Saccharomyces cerevisiae'' genome via PCR. All of the parts we use are expressed in wildtype organisms and not known to have any harmful effect on humans or other organisms. |
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''Do you have any other ideas how to deal with safety issues that could be useful for future iGEM competitions? How could parts, devices and systems be made even safer through biosafety engineering?'' | ''Do you have any other ideas how to deal with safety issues that could be useful for future iGEM competitions? How could parts, devices and systems be made even safer through biosafety engineering?'' | ||
| - | BioBricks are basically DNA-Sequences that are not dangerous to the environment until | + | BioBricks are basically DNA-Sequences that are not dangerous to the environment until they are expressed in a proper organism. |
| - | At first you have to take care that no cell culture with this BioBrick in its genome leaves the | + | At first you have to take care that no cell culture with this BioBrick in its genome leaves the lab. But we have to consider this case as well. That means we have to take care that standard organisms are not able to express the parts outside of the lab. |
| - | It might be possible to add some kind of self-destructive header sequence to the part which ensures, that the concerned cells get destroyed when they try to | + | It might be possible to add some kind of self-destructive header sequence to the part which ensures, that the concerned cells get destroyed when they try to translate the parts into proteins. Some kind of induced cell apoptosis or nekrosis might be used. |
Revision as of 12:57, 4 September 2012
Safety
Would any of your project ideas raise safety issues in terms of: researcher safety, public safety, or environmental safety?
All our work is supervised by PhD students, PhDs and professors of our university who are very experienced in lab work and are currently working in genetics. We document our work in our lab notebook to enable replicability and prevent unnecessary errors.
Our project does not pose any dangers to researchers or the public: We are following widely used lab protocols in a appropriate lab facility. The organisms used in our project, namely E. coli (TOP10 strain) and S. cerevisiae, are well-known and considered safe.
Although, by building a biosensor we are tackling an environmental problem, our system is not intended to be used in the field but in a lab only.
Do any of the new BioBrick parts (or devices) that you made this year raise any safety issues?
We have designed 3 different types of BioBricks. Membrane bound receptors for sensing hormones, a small inverter system to regulate our reporter gene. None of these are found toxic or dangerous by any means. The receptors we use are synthesized after genome-sequences of Danio rerio and Xenopus laevis, both are commonly used model organisms. The rest of the genes and promoters are extracted from the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome via PCR. All of the parts we use are expressed in wildtype organisms and not known to have any harmful effect on humans or other organisms.
Which specific biosafety rules or guidelines do you have to consider in your country?
In Germany any work with genetically modified organisms is regulated by the "Gentechnikgesetz". There are different biosafety levels reaching from 1 to 4. Our lab has been registered as level 1. Our work matches the definition of level 1 since on our current understanding we see no threats on human health or the environment.
Genetically modified organisms are allowed to be released into nature only on permission of the Umweltministerium and once freed need to be constantly monitored.
Do you have any other ideas how to deal with safety issues that could be useful for future iGEM competitions? How could parts, devices and systems be made even safer through biosafety engineering?
BioBricks are basically DNA-Sequences that are not dangerous to the environment until they are expressed in a proper organism. At first you have to take care that no cell culture with this BioBrick in its genome leaves the lab. But we have to consider this case as well. That means we have to take care that standard organisms are not able to express the parts outside of the lab. It might be possible to add some kind of self-destructive header sequence to the part which ensures, that the concerned cells get destroyed when they try to translate the parts into proteins. Some kind of induced cell apoptosis or nekrosis might be used.
