Team:Wageningen UR/Safety/Four

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Revision as of 19:00, 2 September 2011

Building a Synchronized Oscillatory System

Biosafety and biosecurity considerations

Risks and benefits

Under Good Microbiological Practices the risk of working with the BioBrick system is rather small to the worker. When the system would be released into the surroundings, there’s a small risk that it enters a pathogenic host organism that relies on quorum sensing in its pathogenicity.

Though the effects can’t have been studied yet, so unforeseen hazards might turn up. A robust biological oscillator that could be integrated into more complex genetic circuits would be of great utility for more advanced synthetic biology applications, especially related to quorum sensing – while this ability also can be very useful. One can envision the oscillator as a core component of a system sequentially performing specific enzymatic reactions.

Based on these considerations, we conclude that the potential benefits in successfully executing our project outweighs the estimated risks.

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 {{:Team:Wageningen_UR/Templates/Style | text= __NOTOC__
-=== 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? ===
+=== Risks and benefits ===
-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.
+Under Good Microbiological Practices the risk of working with the BioBrick system is rather small to the worker. When the system would be released into the surroundings, there’s a small risk that it enters a pathogenic host organism that relies on quorum sensing in its pathogenicity.
+Though the effects can’t have been studied yet, so unforeseen hazards might turn up. A robust biological oscillator that could be integrated into more complex genetic circuits would be of great utility for more advanced synthetic biology applications, especially related to quorum sensing – while this ability also can be very useful. One can envision the oscillator as a core component of a system sequentially performing specific enzymatic reactions.
+Based on these considerations, we conclude that the potential benefits in successfully executing our project outweighs the estimated risks.
 }}