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.

Safety Questions & Answers

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

RESEARCHER SAFETY?

There are no hazardous chemicals that we used in the laboratory except for EtBr that we used in a special room for gel visualization and some buffers used in commercially available kits.

PUBLIC SAFETY?

ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY?

2. Do any of the new BioBrick parts (or devices) that you made this year raise any safety issues?

We have followed all the safety procedures during the isolation process from the cells we had and we successfully isolated the DNA without any problems that will raise safety issues.

3.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?

In our university we have a biosafety and ethical research center which monitors the safety of our projects. http://www.ueam.metu.edu.tr The members of METU Biology department are also members of National Biosafety Coordinating Committee. We are able to consult to them whenever it is necessary. Also biosafety is a very important subject for METU Department of Biology, whereas the student members are very well trained in the subject. Also the projects that we decided to work on are presented to many people in the area in order to see if they are of any concern for the biosafety regulations. All the procedures that are used in the lab are also approved procedures that are used by these people mentioned above.

4. 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?