Would the materials used in your project and/or your final product pose:

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?

Our laboratory activity is consistent with the NIH “Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant DNA Molecules” as overseen by our Institutional Biosafety Committee (see question 3). While we handle all laboratory materials that pose a potential safety risk according to standard lab safety protocol and Materials Safety Data Sheets, we took the following steps to ensure that the health and safety of laboratory personnel remained a priority when using certain materials and equipment as outlined below:

Ethidium bromide (EtBr): All EtBr use is strictly performed on a designated bench with separately kept equipment (pipettes, tips, waste receptacle, gloves etc). Any materials that come in contact with EtBr, including gels used in electrophoresis, are handled with nitrile gloves and lab apron and disposed in specially marked receptacle with a “biohazard” designation.

Cell culture: While our bacterial chassis, E. coli DH5α, is disabled to where it is nonpathogenic and cannot survive outside of lab conditions, we exercised standard lab safety protocol to avoid any direct contact with it and associated materials such as antibiotics and exposed tips, plates/broth, and so on. These are all disposed in “biohazard” designated receptacles. Furthermore, all exposed counters are disinfected using 70% ethanol immediately following cell culture and also after each other use of lab. In addition, lab equipment is thoroughly cleaned and autoclaved after use.

UV Transluminator: Use of the transluminator (i.e. during gel extraction) was performed while wearing protective gear such as UV-protective goggles. Further exposure to UV rays and hazardous materials was limited by wearing a long-sleeved lab apron and nitrile gloves.

d. Risks to security through malicious misuse by individuals, groups or states? Access to our building and laboratory is strictly limited by cardkey and is further overseen by security personnel at the building entrance.

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

We are working with genes encoding known properties and utilized safety measures to ensure that biohazardous materials including antibiotic-resistant cells are contained within the lab and are appropriately disposed. Therefore, we assess that none of our planned parts raise safety issues.

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

UT Dallas has an Institutional Biosafety Committee that manages all safety responsibilities under NIH “Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant DNA Molecules”. Throughout the course of this work, we ensured that all lab activity respected safety measures.

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?

We are engineering a suicide mechanism whose induction can be used to regulate the activity of cells harboring our BioBricks. Disseminating pertinent safety information through the Registry is a practical alternative to engineering biosafety measures into parts, devices and systems.