Team:METU Turkey safety

Degredo PETronum!

An importat issue: Safety!

All projects are being conducted in lab-safe strains of E.coli and P.putida. All researchers have been trained in applicable lab safety to insure that no bacteria are inadvertently released into the environment. We have also been trained in proper handling of chemicals. In plastics projects, the actual organisms being engineered were maintained in lab conditions (cultures, bioreactors, etc.). None of the parts we made this year raise any particular safety issues that we can foresee. All of our major parts were either taken from pre-registered biobricks, None of our new parts would provide any foreseeable selective advantage in the wild. Thus, these parts would not increase bacterial survival in the case of accidental release.

Is there any possible situation against to our kill-switch mechanism?

Our kill switch mechanism is dependent to arabinose, so our organism would die absence of it. Its basic logic is to addict the organism our wanted enviromental conditions, so it can be controlled.

How does our project work?

Totally degradation of PET to pyruvate is done by E. coli.

Who will our project help?

Our project will help the environment to become cleaner.

Why did we choose this project?

The biodegradation of plastic bottles took thousands of years, and the degrading process emits toxic chemicals into the air. Our project aims to clean enviroment with the degredation of PET to pyruvate by E.coli. With this project,while the environment will be cleaned from PET, the E.coli would add pyruvate to the cell cycle and use it as a new source.