Team:Queens Canada/Safety/FAQs
From 2011.igem.org
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- | <h3green1> Would the materials used in your project and/or your final product pose:</h3green1> <p> | + | <h3green1> <b>Would the materials used in your project and/or your final product pose:</b></h3green1> <p> |
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- | < | + | <h3green1>b. Risks to the safety and health of the general public if released by design or accident?</h3green1> <br> |
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In any transgenic organism, a potential risk could be posed to human and ecosystem health due to their novel genetics conferring an evolutionary advantage over wild type organisms. Given this, this project is designed to minimize the possibility that such an event could occur. Caenorhabditis elegans is not known to be pathogenic in humans. Furthermore, the extrachromosomal assay used in the microinjection process greatly weakens the constitution of transgenetic C.elegans. | In any transgenic organism, a potential risk could be posed to human and ecosystem health due to their novel genetics conferring an evolutionary advantage over wild type organisms. Given this, this project is designed to minimize the possibility that such an event could occur. Caenorhabditis elegans is not known to be pathogenic in humans. Furthermore, the extrachromosomal assay used in the microinjection process greatly weakens the constitution of transgenetic C.elegans. | ||
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- | < | + | <h3green1>c. Risks to environmental quality if released by design or accident?</h3green1> <br> |
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Transgenic C.elegans would pose a minimal risk to the environment for reasons similar to why they would pose a minimal risk to humans. The extrachomosomal assay previously mentioned makes transgenic C.elegans less robust than wild type worms in most situations. The exception for this would be in an environment heavily contaminated by toxic hydrocarbons. Our transgenic worms would be better at using the hydrocarbons as an energy source. Upon the completion of the bioremediation process however, the advantage possessed by the transgenic worms would disappear and they would once again be out competed by wild type worms. Therefore it is unlikely that the transgenic worms would be able to establish any stable ecological niche. Another concern is that transgenic C. elegans could mate with wild type worms to produce hybrid offspring. While it is possible these genes could propagate through the genetic matrix in this way, they confer an advantage only in the most limited and transient of circumstances. Therefore it is highly unlikely that our constructs would contaminate the C. elegans gene pool with any degree of substance or efficiency. | Transgenic C.elegans would pose a minimal risk to the environment for reasons similar to why they would pose a minimal risk to humans. The extrachomosomal assay previously mentioned makes transgenic C.elegans less robust than wild type worms in most situations. The exception for this would be in an environment heavily contaminated by toxic hydrocarbons. Our transgenic worms would be better at using the hydrocarbons as an energy source. Upon the completion of the bioremediation process however, the advantage possessed by the transgenic worms would disappear and they would once again be out competed by wild type worms. Therefore it is unlikely that the transgenic worms would be able to establish any stable ecological niche. Another concern is that transgenic C. elegans could mate with wild type worms to produce hybrid offspring. While it is possible these genes could propagate through the genetic matrix in this way, they confer an advantage only in the most limited and transient of circumstances. Therefore it is highly unlikely that our constructs would contaminate the C. elegans gene pool with any degree of substance or efficiency. |
Revision as of 07:29, 28 September 2011
a. Risks to the safety and health of team members or others in the lab?
b. Risks to the safety and health of the general public if released by
design or accident?
c. Risks to environmental quality if released by design or accident?
d. Risks to security through malicious misuse by individuals, groups or states?
a. Pathogenicity, infectivity, or toxicity?
b. Threats to environmental quality?
c. Security concerns?
a. Does your institution have its own bio-safety rules and if so what are they?
b. Does your institution have an Institutional Biosafety Committee or
equivalent group? If yes, have you discussed your project with them?
c. Will / did you receive any biosafety and/or lab training before
beginning your project? If so, describe this training.
d. Does your country have national biosafety regulations or
guidelines?
a. How could parts, devices and systems be made even safer through biosafety engineering?