Killswitches

One major risk adressed when working with synthetic biology is the spread of the modified organism in nature. To stop the spread in nature most iGEM teams use a system called killswitch. A killswitch system eliminates the risk of bacteria spreading in nature by making it unable to survive without certain condition. A classical killswitch works by the use of a reagent not present in nature that hinders the expression of a toxin. When the bacteria is released to the enviorment, the reagent is no longer present and the expression of the toxin is released.