Team:Wageningen UR/Safety/Three

Would the materials used in your project and/or your final product pose risks to the safety and health of the general public if released by design or accident?

Using the E. coli Top 10 strain as the cell chassis would prevent the BioBrick system from being expressed in the environment. The strain is not expected to grow under the harsh conditions outside the laboratory. The BioBrick part DNA, though, might be taken up by other bacteria via natural genetic transformation. As was found in the section in the lab, so far no pathogenic species are found in the soil that used the BioBrick part’s quorum sensing molecule. Since the BioBrick system is not likely to reach marine environments, where potentially interacting pathogens occur, and does not produce toxic compounds, we assume that the BioBrick system in this cell chassis is quite safe and the risk to the health of the general public is low.