Team:Wageningen UR/Safety/Four

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Revision as of 16:05, 2 September 2011

Building a Synchronized Oscillatory System

Biosafety and biosecurity considerations

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 executing in the environment. The strain is not estimated 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 way described in the first section, no pathogenic species were 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 recon the BioBrick system in this cell chassis is quite safe and the risk to the health of the general public is low.

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-== Safety ==
+== Biosafety and biosecurity considerations ==
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+=== 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? ===
-=== Specific Hazards ===
+Using the ''E. coli'' Top 10 strain as the cell chassis would prevent the BioBrick system from executing in the environment. The strain is not estimated 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 way described in the first section, no pathogenic species were 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 recon the BioBrick system in this cell chassis is quite safe and the risk to the health of the general public is low.
-====== Fungal Track ‘n Trace ======
-The Track ‘n Trace project involves modifying the leucine metabolism of ''A. nidulans'' and using metabolic intermediates to regulate the expression of fluorescent proteins. We do not expect these modifications to increase the pathogenicity or fitness of the ''A. nidulans'' strain. Therefore, we do not anticipate any additional safety hazards going beyond those inherent to working with ''A. nidulans'' in a laboratory environment.
-====== Synchronized Oscillatory System ======
-This project involves the periodic oscillation of the extracellular concentration of the quorum sensing molecule AHL. Due to the important role quorum sensing molecules play in many bacterial infections, successful transfer of the oscillator BioBrick device to a pathogen could potentially affect the development of QS-related pathogenicity in humans.
-====== Environmental impact ======
-The way an organism arises in Synthetic Biology is significantly different compared to its reproduction ability or abilities. Therefore, when it enters into new surroundings its ability to thrive can be different from its wild type variant and the practitioners of Synthetic Biology should, at least partly, be responsible for what they produce. So, consideration has to be taken about possible mutations that could occur whilst it is in the environment.
-A mutation in the synchronized oscillator, for example, could give the host organism an unexpected fitness advantage, and allow it to invade certain ecological niches. The Track ‘n Trace system would only have a plausible fitness advantage in environments with very particular requirements for the Leucine metabolism.
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