Ethical and Safety Considerations in Synthetic Biology

An Introduction

Our university iGEM team are pioneering the first truly synthetic biology project here at Aberdeen; previously genetic manipulation projects have simply involved expressing, or overexpressing, a single gene. We are the first researchers to attempt to assemble a biological circuit, by combining components to generate an emergent property.

Before our lab work commenced, a few safety and ethical issues had to be considered. We were required to submit an application for permission to the local University of Aberdeen Advisory Committee of Genetic Manipulation (ACGM), the outcome of which can be seen in the document below.

As you may recall, the aim of our project was to create a bacterial picoplumber, capable of detecting and mending broken pipes. This required us to design three main modules, namely the AND Gate, the Quorum sensing device and the Latch. The AND gate ensured that expression of our two component glue commenced only in the presence of IPTG, released from the breach, and once a threshold population density was reached. The quorum sensing module was necessary in order for the e.coli to communicate and sense this threshold density and the latch ultimately induced timed cell-lysis, in response to the AND gate being switched into the ON state.

An emergent concern of the committee was the potential danger to an individual under the circumstance that our lysyl oxidase expressing e.coli be accidentally ingested, and subsequently replicate to high levels in the gut. In response to this issue we highlighted the theoretical ability of our system to self-lyse, once a critical population density is reached. This response can be seen in the section entitled ‘mitigation for potential from harm’.

We were, therefore, granted permission to commence our project under the proposed constraints: we were required to prove, with submitted experimental evidence, that the automatic holin-based cell lysis system worked, prior to expressing our two component biological glue (tropoelastin and lysyl oxidase components).

You can see the proposal document that we submitted to our Institute's Genetic Manipulation Advisory Group (GMAG) Committee here. This body reviews applications to manipulate genes at the University of Aberdeen, and issues approval for such projects once they have been assessed for risk. In the linked document, the section dealing with 'Mitigation of potential for harm' is highlighted yellow, and describes the precautions that were adopted in carrying out a synthetic biology project where the assembled genetic circuit was expected to exhibit emergent properties.

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