The Bio-Safety Net

Welcome to the wiki of the HKU igem team 2010

The title of our project this year is "The Bio-Safety Net"

We are from the University of Hong Kong. Our team was formed in early April with 12 student members from different areas of studies.

[http://www.youtube.com/user/hkuigem2010 Our official youtube channel]

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/hkuigem2010 Our Gallery]

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Abstract of our project

Our team picked out the idea of engineering a mechanism that can act as a safety net to prevent genetically modified bacteria from performing undesired tasks in "inappropriate" environments.
Bacteria are genetically engineered to perform various functions.Prospective functions include biodegradation of crude oil and killing of cancer cells. Yet, undesired tasks might be performed by the baterium itself as well. The idea of the introduction of a "suicide" mechanism under specific conditions would serve the purpose of a "bio-safety net".
Mechanism and conditions for cell destruction were investigated. We found the biopart Bba_k112808 from the UC Berkeley team, (i.e. an enterobacteria phage T4 Lysis Device with no promotor)useful in attaining cell destruction. The idea of a bio-safety net is to limit the survival of the bacteria to (some) customized and specific condition(s).
Matching of different promotors, corresponding to different environmental factors with the expression control of the lysis device, gives possibilities in designing biobricks that provide a "bio-safety net" to virtually all genetically engineered bacteria.