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From 2011.igem.org

Berkeley iGEM 2011

Project Summary Our team is working on characterizing and manipulating promoters to respond to stress in order to curtail the expression of certain toxic proteins. The promoter sits in front of the toxic protein and will shut off in response to cellular stress caused by that protein. In affect creating a negative feedback system that will allow the protein to be expressed at its maximum level without causing harmful cellular stress.

Safety

Would any of your project ideas raise safety issues in terms of:

• • researcher safety,
  • public safety, or
  • environmental safety?

Nothing we're working on has any special safety concerns. Working with E.Coli generally poses some safety hazards but proper handling avoids any risk factors for researchers, the public, or the environment.

Do any of the new BioBrick parts (or devices) that you made this year raise any safety issues? If yes,

• • did you document these issues in the Registry?
  • how did you manage to handle the safety issue?
  • how could other teams learn from your experience?

We are working with ToxR which borders on being an RG2 part since it is part of a virulence island, but as a transcription factor is shouldn't be considered dangerous. Other than that, nothing we are working with raises any safety concerns.

Is there a local biosafety group, committee, or review board at your institution?

• • If yes, what does your local biosafety group think about your project?

There are no special safety issues raised by this work beyond the general use of E. coli and recombinant DNA.

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?

Managing biosafety with new software tools by integrating safety into design would improve the general safety of bacterial engineering.