From 2011.igem.org
Laboratory Safety
Silicateins are enzymes that originate from sea sponges of the phylum Porifera, where they regulate the formation of biosilica polymers that make up the sponge’s skeleton. Silica is the main component of sand, and is used frequency in the manufacturing industry due to its hardness and chemical inertness. Silica is also edible, and is present in many foodstuffs. There are no associated toxicity issues associated with the silica polymers that we intend to create, and they could eventually reduce the use of non-environmentally friendly plastics.
For our project, we have worked with non-pathogenic laboratory strains of E. coli (Biosafety level 1). We had the silicatein gene synthesized from Suberites domuncula, isolated the phycocyanobilin ferredoxin oxidoreductase (PcyA) gene from a laboratory strain of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, and obtained the heme oxigenase (ho1) and the Cph1/EnvZ fusion protein (cph8) genes from plasmid libraries. Execution of our idea involves working with non-pathogenic laboratory or industrial bacterial strains, under standard operating conditions. Therefore, we do not expect that our work will have an adverse effect on the safety of researchers or the public. The silica nanostructures are intended to be used in a laboratory or in an industrial setting, and would not pose an environmental threat. We hope that the use of natural materials such as silica could reduce the use of plastics to make the same types of structures.
To raise awareness of problems that could arise from synthetic biology projects, we suggest a web series of short talks given by Bioethics experts active in the field right now.
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