Team:DTU Denmark/safety

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The project


The redoxilator

- Genetic design
- Applications and perspectives
- Results
- Safety considerations


The USERTM assembly standard

- USERTM cloning
- USERTM fusion


USERTM fusion primer design software

- Abstract
- Instructions
- Output format

The project


Safety considerations

The Redoxilator construct applies only to S. cerevisiae which is generally regarded as safe (GRAS), and moreover one of the best characterized industrial organisms. This fact alone eliminates most safety issues. It is of course possible to produce mildly toxic compounds if one so desires, and applying the Redoxilator, this can be done at higher rates. However, it is more likely than not that the production strain will be damaged in the process, making it very hard to produce toxic compouds, and thus jeopardizing researcher safety. Therefore, if standard safety protocols for genetic engineering of production organisms are followed, the Redoxilator cannot be considered to elevate researcher safety issues.

Likewise, public safety will only be affected if standard safety protocols are not followed. Certain products of S. cerevisiae are deemed safe for human consumption and other applications. If the Redoxilator is utilized in production of such, screening for secretion of unwanted metabolites should be performed post genetic engineering of production strain. As with regard to researcher safety, if standard safety protocols for genetic engineering of production organisms are followed, the Redoxilator cannot be considered to elevate public safety issues.

Lastly, the Redoxilator does not pose an immediate threat to environmental safety. Genetically engineered production strains are to be kept isolated, and disposed of following the rules and regulations relating to GMOs. If these are followed, the Redoxilator construct will pose no threat to environmental safety.

Synthetic Biology

“Synthetic Biology is an art of engineering new biological systems that don’t exist in nature.”

-Paras Chopra & Akhil Kamma

In nature, biological molecules work together in complex systems to serve purposes of the cell. In synthetic biology these molecules are used as individual functional units that are combined to form tailored systems exhibiting complex dynamical behaviour. From ‘design specifications’ generated from computational modelling, engineering-based approaches enables the construction of such new specified gene-regulatory networks. The ultimate goal of synthetic biology is to construct systems that gain new functions, and the perspectives of the technology are enormous. It has already been used in several medical projects2 and is predicted to play a major role in biotech-production and environmental aspects.

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