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From 2011.igem.org

Would any of your project ideas raise safety issues in terms of:

researcher safety

All of our protocols and experiments were basic cloning techniques. And experiment members of our team were trained to standard safety

public safety
Our project is consists of two parts that are experiments and software. The experiments are basic cloning procedure for synthesizing minimal chromosome with V. cholerae chromosomes. We are not using ‘BACTERIA’ V. cholerae but genome of V. cholerae is used to our experiments.

environmental safety
To prevent the leak of transformed bacteria to environment, we always sterilize all the instruments and Bacteria and media containing bacteria were bleached before disposal.

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?
Every component of our new biobricks came from the iGEM 2011 distribution kit. The components thereof are guaranteed to be safe.

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?
There is no organization that is specialized in safety issue of synthetic biology in Korea. So, we obey the guidelines that provided by Chung-Buk national Univ.

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 think the best way to deal with safety issues is to encourage all iGEM teams to contribute in making one solid safety standard and make it official. Also, lectures related to safety issues can help ensure the enforcement of rules and requirements put forth by this official standard.

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?

- NO. First of all, we were given the GENOME of v. cholera by seoul national university collage of medicine. Genes of vibrio cholerae that we are used for our project are involved in replication and partition system, rctA, rctB, replication origin and parABS. These genes are known as non toxicity or infection.

b. Risks to the safety and health of the general public if released by design or accident?
- NO. Both rctA and rctB can control only replication initiation of chromosomeII of vibrio cholera. rctA is non-translated gene and rctB can initiate replication. parA, parB and pars are known as partition gene. So, these genes can’t cause any risks to safety and health of the general public. But our team may employ parABS genes of bacillus subtillis instead of vibrio cholerae’s because information of vibrio’s parABS gene is much less than bacillus.

c. Risks to environmental quality if released by design or accident?
-NO. In iGEM2011, goal of our project is that it has only ability to self-replication and partition like normal chromosome. This is a prototype which has only replication and partition abilities in e.coli. So, although it can cause some a little change, it can’t change general nature of transformed e.coli. However, more characterized artificial chromosome will be manufactured in the future if we accomplish our project and our specialized gene database. But there are no risks to any aspects in present.

d. Risks to security through malicious misuse by individuals, groups or states?
NO

Please explain your responses (whether yes or no) to these questions.
Specifically, are any parts or devices in your project associated with (or known to cause):

- pathogenicity, infectivity, or toxicity?

- NO.

- threats to environmental quality?
- NO.

- security concerns?
- NO.

Our goal of iGEM2011 project is e.coli which has two chromosomes. And one of two chromosomes has only abilities to replication and partition function of v.cholerae.

Under what biosafety provisions will / do you operate?

a. Does your institution have its own biosafety rules and if so what are they? Provide a link to them online if possible.

No, Our own biosafety rules didn’t yet lay down formally. We obey the general experimental protocol and the safety rules are given our university.

b. Does your institution have an Institutional Biosafety Committee or equivalent group? If yes, have you discussed your project with them? Describe any concerns or changes that were made based on this review.

No, We haven’t. After we examined closely thesises are related Our project, discussed with a few professors.

c. Will / did you receive any biosafety and/or lab training before beginning your project? If so, describe this training.

No, We didn’t receive training before beginning our project. We depends on the notice about lab rules are given our university.

d. Does your country have national biosafety regulations or guidelines? If so, provide a link to them online if possible.

Yes, We have national biosafety regulation and website associated with them have existed. The website is Korea Biosafety Clearing House(KBCH). The KBCH is a Korean node of the BCH Central Organization that provides Korean LMO (Living Modified Organism) information, helping people to significantly increase the accessibility to it. It is to exchange and share the legal information on LMO and to offer the list of the approved LMO under the domestic law. If you want to look at our national biosafety regulation, Click here. http://www.biosafety.or.kr/english/laws/laws.asp