Team:UNIST Korea/Safety

1. Would any of your project ideas raise safety issues in terms of:
• Researcher Safety: All genetic manipulations related to this project are made in benign, non-pathogenic lab strains of E. coli. Students enrolled in this project had been previously educated to follow the preliminary laboratory safety rules.
• Public and Environmental Safety: Laboratory wastes are properly decontaminated before disposal.

2. Do any of the new BioBrick™ parts (or devices) that you made this year raise any safety issues?
• The new biobrick parts which we are planning to make this year would not raise any safety issues.

3. Is there a local biosafety group, committee, or review board at your institution?
• Though there is no special committee dedicated for Biosafety, we do have a general laboratory safety committee. The general laboratory safety committee also handles issues related to biosafety.

4. 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?
o Genes could be constructed such that they require several specific prerequisites to function properly, and that these prerequisites are not attainable elsewhere but in lab. The biobrick part that we are planning for would be one best example of this kind.

Probability of Hazards:

1. Could there be an unplanned event or series of events involving your project, resulting in either death, injury, occupational illness, damage to equipment or property, or damage to the environment? How likely is that going to happen?
• The probability of an unexpected accident is very less as the laboratory is well-maintained and periodically checked to ensure its safety.

2. Does your project require the exposure or release of the engineered organism to people or the environment (e.g. as medicine, for bioremediation)
• Our device is purely constructed for a closed system. Our biobrick device is engineered with a environmental cue triggerable suicide cassette that would kill the device on exposure to environment.

Expected Hazards:

1. Could your device, when working properly, represent a hazard to people or the environment?
• It is less likely that our device would represent a hazard to people or environment.

2. Is your engineered organism infectious? Does it produce a toxic product? Does it interfere with human physiology or the environment?
• No: The organism used is a benign lab strain of E. coli and is not infectious, does not produce toxic products, and does not interfere with human physiology or the environment.

3. What would happen if one or several bioparts change their function or stop working as intended (e.g. through mutation)? How would the whole device or system change its properties and what unintended effects would result thereof?
• In case of failure of the device, there would probably be no unintended effects.

4. What unintended effects could you foresee after your engineered organism is released to the environment?
• In case of release into the environment, our engineered organism would kill itself. Hence would not pose any environmental hazard.

5. Try to think outside the box, what is the absolute worst case scenario for human health or the environment, that you could imagine?
• Since, we are trying to engineer a cell lysis system, we would assure that there would be no hazard to human health or environment.