Team:British Columbia/humanpractices

From 2013.igem.org

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The CRISPR system is composed of various components including highly variable spacers of approximately 35 base pairs separated by highly conserved repeats of similar length. These spacer are homologous to invader nucleic acids and can provide phage immunity for bacteria. Although these spacers can be chosen carefully to sequence the specific DNA of particular phages, they could have alternate unintended implications which may involve cleaving unintended DNA that could be harmful.
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The CRISPR system gains it's specificity through RNA transcribed from highly variable spacer regions that are separated by conserved repeat regions. The resulting small RNAs are used to target phage DNA and confer immunity to the bacterial host. While one of the most useful feature of CRISPR is it's easily engineered specificity, spacer regions could potentially have "off target" activity and unintended implications.
We are currently in the process of building a repository for CRISPR spacer sequences for the iGEM community. Our server will host the sequences and a BLAST-pipeline that will retrieve all the possible sequences from public databases that could be targeted by the submitted spacer. Once a spacer sequence is submitted and BLAST-results are generated, a review process will take place where two anonymous iGEM teams submit a safety assessment. This will include possible societal, environmental and scientific implications of the spacer region as they relate to the possible target sequences. Moreover, this could help seed new ideas and applications with the newly designed spacers.  
We are currently in the process of building a repository for CRISPR spacer sequences for the iGEM community. Our server will host the sequences and a BLAST-pipeline that will retrieve all the possible sequences from public databases that could be targeted by the submitted spacer. Once a spacer sequence is submitted and BLAST-results are generated, a review process will take place where two anonymous iGEM teams submit a safety assessment. This will include possible societal, environmental and scientific implications of the spacer region as they relate to the possible target sequences. Moreover, this could help seed new ideas and applications with the newly designed spacers.  

Revision as of 10:40, 27 September 2013

iGEM Home

Human Practices

Genetically Modified Yogurt

Roll over parts of the flow chart to read more!

CRISPR Space-R

The CRISPR system gains it's specificity through RNA transcribed from highly variable spacer regions that are separated by conserved repeat regions. The resulting small RNAs are used to target phage DNA and confer immunity to the bacterial host. While one of the most useful feature of CRISPR is it's easily engineered specificity, spacer regions could potentially have "off target" activity and unintended implications. We are currently in the process of building a repository for CRISPR spacer sequences for the iGEM community. Our server will host the sequences and a BLAST-pipeline that will retrieve all the possible sequences from public databases that could be targeted by the submitted spacer. Once a spacer sequence is submitted and BLAST-results are generated, a review process will take place where two anonymous iGEM teams submit a safety assessment. This will include possible societal, environmental and scientific implications of the spacer region as they relate to the possible target sequences. Moreover, this could help seed new ideas and applications with the newly designed spacers. Here is an example of a submission form for Space-R:

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