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Revision as of 15:23, 6 October 2014

Safety

The organisms we used for this project :

Species	Strain no. / name	Risk Group	Any risk to humans?
E. coli K 12	DH5α	1	E. coli K-12 is considered as having no or low individual and community risk. It is unlikely to cause human or animal disease.

The parts we used for this project :

Part number	Source of the physical DNA	What species does this part originally come from ?	Risk Group	The function of the parts
BBa_K1472601 (Leaderless thioesterase)	City University of Hong Kong	Escherichia coli K 12	1	A protein that catalyzes the conversion of fatty acyl-ACP (acyl carrier protein) or fatty acyl-CoA to free fatty acids
BBa_K1472606 (TetR repressible FadL & FadD generator)	City University of Hong Kong	Escherichia coli K 12	1	A TetR repressible construct encoding the FadD and FadL intermembrane proteins. FadD: an intermembrane protein transport long chain fatty acid through the outer membrane into the cell. FadL: an intermembrane protein converting long chain fatty acid into long chain acyl-CoA and transporting it through the inner membrane into the cell.
BBa_K1472610 (Delta 15 desaturase)	Life Technologies Limited	Synechocystis sp. PCC6803	1	It encodes the delta 15 desaturase which catalyses the conversion of linoleic acid (18:2) into alpha-linolenic acid, ALA (18:3) by adding a cis-doube bond at carbon 15
BBa_K1472611 (IPTG inducible expression of ∆9, ∆12, and ∆15 desaturases)	Life Technologies Limited	Synechocystis sp. PCC6803	1	It is a device that contains a promoter (BBa_R0010) and an RBS (BBa_B0034) encoding each desaturase ∆9,∆12 and ∆15 protein.
BBa_K1472612 (Delta 9,12 and 15 Desaturase)	Life Technologies Limited	Synechocystis sp. PCC6803	1	This translational unit is composed of delta 9, delta 12 and delta 15 desaturase genes with RBS for each of them.

General public Safety :

All E. coli strains used in this project are attenuated mutant strains that are unlikely to survive/propagate in the environment outside the laboratory as they harbour many genetic mutations in their genome.

To reduce the risk of biological materials escaping from the lab, all bacterial strains are kept and stored in designated refrigerators (before and after all experiments) in the supervisor’s (Dr. Richard Kong) laboratory which is not accessible to the general public. The lab where iGEM experiments are conducted is also not accessible by people of the general public because all lab workers need to be authorized to work in the lab and are required to carry a “Name badge”.

Environmental Safety

Possible risks : Spillage of bacterial cultures or organic wastes/solutions
Solution: Spillages will be immediately dealt with in the lab using appropriate disinfection procedures (e.g. disinfection with antibacterial detergents) and wipe down benches surface with 70% ethanol.

Organic solvents, biological materials and wastes (microorganisms) and plastic-wares are collected in separate waste containers for collection by technical staff. Biological wastes are treated with bleach and detergent and subsequently autoclaved to kill off all live microorganisms.

What new risks might arise from our product growth?

If the product created in this project (ALA) were to be prepared or produced in large scale in a commercial setting, the product would be tested extensively beforehand using cell culture and/or animal models and finally in humans for their safety, toxicity, and mutagenicity before it can be certified for use as a health supplement.