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== Safety == | == Safety == | ||
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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration, 2011. Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance | U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration, 2011. Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance | ||
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Revision as of 13:13, 1 September 2011
Template:Team:UCL LONDON/Template/Header
Safety
1. Would any of your project ideas raise safety issues in terms of:
- researcher safety,
- public safety, or
- environmental safety?
Safety issues have been considered throughout our project design and experimental work plan and a thorough risk assessment was carried out. Furthermore, all the participants of the project have completed a safety induction given by the Departmental Biological Safety Officer, during which fire evacuation procedure, accident reporting and general safety practices have been detailed and all team members have a copy of the departmental safety book.
E. coli strains that are non-pathogenic and therefore low-risk have been chosen, so there is no great safety issue with regards to the host organism as long as Safe Microbiological Technique (SMicT) is adhered to. The major hazard identified in our project is the use of Ethidium Bromide (EtBr) for staining of agarose gels. EtBr is a mutagen and moderately toxic after an acute exposure. It should be treated as a possible carcinogen and teratogen. The following control measures will be adopted:
- Nitrile gloves will be used for all EtBr handling.
- EtBr preparations are to be carried out in a dedicated fume hood.
- All EtBr-containing materials will be disposed of in dedicated bins.
- Work surfaces must be thoroughly cleaned after each experiment.
Our project poses little risk in terms of public and environmental safety. As mentioned before, the organism we are going to use is a non-pathogenic lab strain of E. coli. Nonetheless, proper chemical waste disposal and Genetically Modified Organism containment are essential. Precaution steps include:
- Liquids containing E. coli and equipment with biological contamination must be autoclaved before disposal.
- EtBr waste and contaminated materials (gloves, tissues, etc.) must be put in the dedicated bin for collection by Estates. Work surfaces must be thoroughly cleaned after each experiment.
2. 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?
The BioBrick parts we are going to make this year are relating to DNA gyrase. DNA gyrase is an essential bacterial enzyme that catalyzes the ATP-dependent negative supercoiling of double-stranded, closed-circular DNA (Reece and Maxwell, 1991). To date there is no research showing that DNA gyrase could be toxic or harmful, therefore, it has little or no potential risk to human health or the environment.
3. 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?
- If no, which specific biosafety rules or guidelines do you have to consider in your country?
At UCL all work with genetic modification techniques and with genetically modified organisms must first be discussed with the Departmental Genetic Modification Safety Officer (DGMSO) and approved by the College Genetic Modification Safety Committee. All work must conform to the UCL Local Rules. A risk assessment must be performed and agreed with the DGMSO before work begins. Our project has been approved to proceed. All the participants have gone through training in waste disposal procedure and safe lab practice. There were also project related laboratory skill practise sessions run under the supervision of instructors.
4. Do you have any other ideas how to deal with safety issues that could be useful for future iGEM competitions? How parts, devices and systems could be made even safer through biosafety engineering.
Antibiotic resistance has become one of the world's most pressing public health problems. There are safety issues associated with using an antibiotic resistant gene as a selectable marker. By using antibiotic resistant genes in research and particularly in the production of therapeutics raises the potential for horizontal gene transfer to environmental organisms and subsequent expansion of the population of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. With regards to this concern, the FDA is encouraging the use of alternative plasmid selection mechanisms.
The control of gene expression could potentially be helpful in improving the safety of engineered genes by building in complex control circuits to induce expression of the cassette only under certain conditions.
References:
Reece, R.J. and Maxwell, A., 1991. DNA Gyrase: Structure and Function. Critical Reviews in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. 26 (3/4):335-375.
Safety Handbook, 2010/2011. Department of Biochemical Engineering, UCL.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration, 1998. Guidance for Industry Use of Antibiotic Resistance Marker Genes in Transgenic Plants.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration, 2011. Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance Template:Team:UCL LONDON/Template/Footer
