Team:Brown/Human Practices/Safety

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With regards to our specific project material, we were particularly careful to ensure we took the proper precautions. While our Light Pattern Controlled Circuit project does not raise any particular safety concerns beyond accommodations for work with E. coli, we noted some safety issues with the Tat protein transduction domain (Tat-ptd). This short amino acid sequence was originally obtained from the HIV virus - it is believed that this short sequence allows the HIV virus to transduce across host membranes. Our project presents this Tat-ptd as a tool for the iGEM community, as we designed a cassette that allows a researcher to easily insert a protein of choice to be linked to the Tat-ptd. This gives a researcher the potential to carry any protein across a cell membrane. In this sense, our Tat-ptd cassette is a tool that is not inherently dangerous; there are no significant safety concerns in expressing the Tat-ptd. However, like any tool, our cassette could potentially be used in a harmful manner. Coupling the Tat-ptd / linker cassette with malignant proteins could have potentially devastating effects, given exposure (skin contact, ingestion) at a significant level, as this complex would permeate across many cells in the body. Thus, use of our Tat-ptd/linker cassette with human transcription factors or other sensitive material would require more sophisticated safety precautions.
With regards to our specific project material, we were particularly careful to ensure we took the proper precautions. While our Light Pattern Controlled Circuit project does not raise any particular safety concerns beyond accommodations for work with E. coli, we noted some safety issues with the Tat protein transduction domain (Tat-ptd). This short amino acid sequence was originally obtained from the HIV virus - it is believed that this short sequence allows the HIV virus to transduce across host membranes. Our project presents this Tat-ptd as a tool for the iGEM community, as we designed a cassette that allows a researcher to easily insert a protein of choice to be linked to the Tat-ptd. This gives a researcher the potential to carry any protein across a cell membrane. In this sense, our Tat-ptd cassette is a tool that is not inherently dangerous; there are no significant safety concerns in expressing the Tat-ptd. However, like any tool, our cassette could potentially be used in a harmful manner. Coupling the Tat-ptd / linker cassette with malignant proteins could have potentially devastating effects, given exposure (skin contact, ingestion) at a significant level, as this complex would permeate across many cells in the body. Thus, use of our Tat-ptd/linker cassette with human transcription factors or other sensitive material would require more sophisticated safety precautions.
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To learn more about what precautions should be taken with "normal" or "intended" use of our cassette, our team consulted the Office of Environmental Health and Safety at Brown University, where our research was conducted. Each member of the team completed a Laboratory Safety course before beginning research in the lab. NOTE: WHAT DID EHS SAY ABOUT SAFETY LEVELS AND TAT? <br>
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To learn more about what precautions should be taken with "normal" or "intended" use of our cassette, our team consulted the Office of Environmental Health and Safety at Brown University, where our research was conducted. Each member of the team completed a Laboratory Safety course before beginning research in the lab. NOTE: WHAT DID EHS SAY ABOUT SAFETY LEVELS AND TAT?
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Please use this page to answer the safety questions posed on the [[Safety | safety page]].
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<table border="0">
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    <li><strong><i>Would any of your project ideas raise safety issues in terms of:
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      </strong>
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      <ul>
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        <li> researcher safety, </li>
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        <li> public safety, or </li>
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        <li> environmental safety? </li>
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      </ul></i>
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For the Tat protein transduction domain portion of our project, Tat in itself is not harmful to humans, nor is it to the environment. Furthermore, we have (or plan to) attach our Tat-Linker to bacterial transcription factors, which means that there should be very minimal to no harm to humans even if they did come in contact with our engineered Tat-Transcription factors.
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<br>
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Because our Tat-Linker has been modularized, we acknowledge that it could potentially be attached to a "harmful" DNA sequence. However, this is not at all part of our project.
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    </li>
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    <li><strong> Do any of the new BioBrick parts (or devices) that you made this year raise any safety issues? If yes,
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      </strong>
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      <ul>
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        <li> did you document these issues in the Registry? </li>
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        <li> how did you manage to handle the safety issue? </li>
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        <li> How could other teams learn from your experience? </li>
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      </li>
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    <li><strong>Is there a local biosafety group, committee, or review board at your institution? </strong>
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        <ul>
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            <li> If yes, what does your local biosafety group think about your project? </li>
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            <li> If no, which specific biosafety rules or guidelines do you have to consider in your country? </li>
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        </ul>
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    </li>
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    <li><strong>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? </strong></li>
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    </ol></td>
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  <td><p>&nbsp;</p>    </td>
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Revision as of 02:40, 25 October 2010

Safety

This year, our lab work was done in the Escherichia coli chasis. The NIH Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant DNA Molecules details proper safety practices for work involving Escherichia coli, which is an exemption under Section III-F-6. Appendix C-II "Escherichia coli K-12 Host-Vector Systems" suggests Biosafety Level I (BSL I) physical containment conditions. Our team complied with these BSL I practices. Our work with E. coli does not pose any particular researcher, public, or environmental safety concerns given proper BSL I practices.

With regards to our specific project material, we were particularly careful to ensure we took the proper precautions. While our Light Pattern Controlled Circuit project does not raise any particular safety concerns beyond accommodations for work with E. coli, we noted some safety issues with the Tat protein transduction domain (Tat-ptd). This short amino acid sequence was originally obtained from the HIV virus - it is believed that this short sequence allows the HIV virus to transduce across host membranes. Our project presents this Tat-ptd as a tool for the iGEM community, as we designed a cassette that allows a researcher to easily insert a protein of choice to be linked to the Tat-ptd. This gives a researcher the potential to carry any protein across a cell membrane. In this sense, our Tat-ptd cassette is a tool that is not inherently dangerous; there are no significant safety concerns in expressing the Tat-ptd. However, like any tool, our cassette could potentially be used in a harmful manner. Coupling the Tat-ptd / linker cassette with malignant proteins could have potentially devastating effects, given exposure (skin contact, ingestion) at a significant level, as this complex would permeate across many cells in the body. Thus, use of our Tat-ptd/linker cassette with human transcription factors or other sensitive material would require more sophisticated safety precautions.

To learn more about what precautions should be taken with "normal" or "intended" use of our cassette, our team consulted the Office of Environmental Health and Safety at Brown University, where our research was conducted. Each member of the team completed a Laboratory Safety course before beginning research in the lab. NOTE: WHAT DID EHS SAY ABOUT SAFETY LEVELS AND TAT?

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