Team:GeorgiaTech/Ethics and Safety

From 2010.igem.org

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<li>environmental safety?</li>
<li>environmental safety?</li>
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<p>Our idea involves the insertion of the AOX gene from the sacred lotus, which redirects energy from the
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<p>The Georgia Tech iGem project involves bacterial thermogenesis via cloning of a naturally occuring plant gene. All genetic parts involved are found currently in natural plants or bacteria and none pose a threat to environmental, public, or researcher safety. All bacteria strains used are nonpathogenic. Further, it is highly unlikely that genes under experimentation would cause adverse effects even if expressed in wild type bacterial colonies, as the heat production is both benign and extremely energy intensive, which would be a highly unfavorable trait. All laboratory materials, both biological and chemical, are safely used in a Biosafety Level 1 laboratory setting.</p>
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metabolic system to be released as heat in response to a cold-shock. The protein product produced is
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directed to the inner membrane of the cell, and not released into the environment. As our research
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is confined to in vitro usage at this point, and the components used have no known adverse effects
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on the environment, there is very little risk associated with a potential accident involving our project.
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The research pursued does not pose any known safety hazards to researchers, the public, or the
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environment. The strains of E. coli we utilized were non-pathogenic, standard lab strains that are safely
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used in a Biosafety Level 1 laboratory setting.</p>
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<p><b>2. Do any of the new BioBrick parts (or devices) that you made this year raise any safety issues? If yes,</p>
<p><b>2. Do any of the new BioBrick parts (or devices) that you made this year raise any safety issues? If yes,</p>
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<p>We constructed a bacterial plasmid containing the AOX gene with a targeting sequence, OmpA, and
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<p>The BioBrick device constructs contain an alternative oxidase gene (AOX) attached to a targeting sequence (OmpA) with a promoter, HybB; none of these known biosafety issues.</p>
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promoter, HybB, which have no known biosafety issues.</p>
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<p><b>3. Is there a local biosafety group, committee, or review board at your institution?</p>
<p><b>3. Is there a local biosafety group, committee, or review board at your institution?</p>
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<p>The Occupational Health and Safety Committee and the Environmental Health and Safety Office
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<p>The Occupational Health and Safety Committee and the Environmental Health and Safety Office of the Georgia Institute of Technology has approved Professor Eric Gaucher’s laboratory for Biosafety Level 1 Research.</p>
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of the Georgia Institute of Technology has approved Professor Eric Gaucher’s laboratory for
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Biosafety Level 1 Research.</p>
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<p><b>4. Do you have any other ideas how to deal with safety issues that could be useful for future
<p><b>4. Do you have any other ideas how to deal with safety issues that could be useful for future
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biosafety engineering?</p></b>
biosafety engineering?</p></b>
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<p>Our group has discussed the sharp learning curve associated with the first year of a team’s experience
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<p>Our group has discussed the sharp learning curve associated with the first year of a team’s experience with iGEM. All group members attended an institute biological laboratory safety class, but many things were learned along the way, specific to genetic engineering research. We would propose a collaboration of iGEM members to produce an online, visual, one-hour introductory course on the basic biosafety issues that could arise during the iGEM research process.</p>
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with iGEM. Although our institution offered, and we all attended, a biological laboratory safety class,
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there were many things we learned along the way, specific to research performed in the bacterial
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genetic engineering laboratory. We would propose a collaboration of iGEM members to produce an
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online, visual, one-hour introductory course on the basic biosafety issues that could arise during the
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iGEM research process.</p>
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<p><center><font color="#FFFFFF" size=5><b>Attributions and Contributions</b></font></center></p>
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    <td bgcolor="#964141" width="900"><font color="#FFFFFF"><b><p>Soll et al had demonstrated successful cloning of AOX from Arabidopsis into E. coli. However, Arabidopsis does not use AOX as a significant source of heat generation. As Georgia Tech’s inaugural iGEM team, we chose to clone the AOX gene from Voodoo lily into bacteria because the AOX pathway
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plays an important role in thermogenesis in this plant species. Previous work done by the UCSF iGEM team of 2005 helped us determine hyBb as an optimal cold-shock promoter for our experiments.
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We would like to thank our advisors Dr. Gaucher, Dr. Weitz, Dr. Styczynski, Dr. Cole and graduate
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mentors Richard In-Ho Joh, Ryan Randall, and Catherine Rivet.</p></td>
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Revision as of 19:13, 27 October 2010

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