Biosafety

Overview

Biosafety is an essential aspect when taking part in iGEM especially when you work with living organisms which could possibly get out of your application by damage or incorrect handling. It is important to protect the population and the environment by developing and applying systems which comply these aspects. In order to counter this problem there already exist useful systems to prevent the bacteria from escaping or to kill the bacteria when they are outside of the device. To complement this archive we constructed not only one system but also three systems which differ in leakiness and strength. For this approach we combined two common Biosafety-ideas, an auxotrophic and a toxic gene product, in one device. Thereby the constructed Biosafety-System takes the best of this two approaches and is therefore characterized by a double kill-swtich system. This double kill-switch mechanism provides a higher plasmid stability and a higher resistance towards undesirable mutations additionally. In one sentence: Our Biosafety-System is safe!

Application

The device we designed is everywhere applicable. Everywhere a closed system is used where E.coli is located to produce products which isn't allowed to get out. It can also be used to produce toxic products by induction with the right inducer. The alanince racemase which is in the device is a new opportunity to arrange selection like an antibiotic would do. With our device it isn’t necessary to supplement antibiotics to the culture media. Because of the fact that our whole MFC system within the safety strain is so safe and independent of weather it can be used in wastewater treatment, for small applications at home or in the Third World to gain electricity. For detailed information about using the MFC in actual and future application see our Application site.

References

• Autoren (Jahr) Titel [Link|Paper Ausgabe: Seiten].