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Team:Arizona State/Safety
From 2011.igem.org
Safety
Contents |
Researcher Safety
General Lab safety: All members of our team were required to attend biosafety training according to Arizona State policy before working in the lab. The lab space is classified as biosafety level one. As such, rules concerning proper physical attire and use of protective barriers like gloves are combined with aseptic techniques to ensure cross-contamination between lab organisms and researchers does not occur. All biological trash is autoclaved before disposal.
Safety issues concerning CRISPR: Our project involves manipulating the CRISPR pathway as a gene regulation tool. The CRISPR system is naturally present in many prokaryotes and nearly all archea. Introducing a CRISPR locus into bacteria lacking CRISPR has the potential to increase resistance to phage attack and plasmid uptake. This is unlikely to have a significant effect on pathogenicity, especially when the spacers are designed to target relatively benign genes products such as GFP, as in our proof of concept. Currently our constructs omit two genes (CAS1 and CAS2) implicated in the incorporation of new spacers into CRISPR arrays such that we minimize the possibility of unwanted targeting that could potentially increase pathogenicity (although there is no evidence to suggest that this would even be a favorable event).
Public and Environmental Safety
- There is no expected public safety risk from this project. Bacteria with ASU iGEM's manipulated CRISPR-Cas system will only target genes that have been specifically engineered to be targeted, none of which will be detrimental if released.
Biobrick considerations
- Our submitted Biobrick parts will not pose any risk to the public or to the environment.
Safety at Arizona State University
- Environmental Health and Safety Services at ASU is aware of our project and has not expressed safety concerns to date. Our proposal will be reviewed in detail to ensure that every aspect complies with university and state safety regulations.
