Team:Kyoto/Safety

Questions

There are 4 questions in Safety.

Answers

Q. Would any of your project ideas raise safety issues in terms of researcher safety, public safety, or environmental safety?

A. In the project, we try to deal with environmental problems that might be caused by applications of bioengineering thechnologies to our daily life. Our devised system provides a unique way to control the lifespan of genetically modified bacteria and to thus avoid their deregulated spread.

Q. Do any of the new BioBrick parts (or devices) that you made this year raise any safety issues? If yes, did you document these issues in the Registry? How did you manage to handle the safety issue? How could other teams learn from your experience?

A. No, we don't think so.

Q. 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?

A. Laboratory of Science Communication and Bioethics (which belongs to the Graduate School of Bioscience, Kyoto University) works to make biological researches carried out at our institution transparent to society. For detailed information on their activities, please cite at the web sites below.

[http://www.lif.kyoto-u.ac.jp/j/modules/content6/index.php?id=15] [http://www.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~kato/]

Q. 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?

A. we have one ideas - to make check list to obey for safety.

This year, various countries' teams participate in iGEM, and the number of participant is increasing. Then, iGEM Headquarters may need some standard for safety in the future in order to control many teams' safety. So, We think that iGEM HQ should make check list for safety. The feature of this check list we think is itemized below.

・This check list is the paper where some basic rules to keep for safety are itemized.

・This check list is made through discussion among some researchers and experts in biosafety.

・iGEM teams must keep this rules written in this check list.

・iGEM HQ visit some teams at random and without appointment, and make sure that they keep check list.

After this check list is made, iGEM teams should care safety problems more actively.