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Team:UANL Mty-Mexico/Safety
From 2013.igem.org
Overview
Sometimes the laboratory can be dangerous; there are many hazards that have the potential to injure or cause ill health or disease. Protecting the health and safety of people in the laboratory is a community expectation that makes good standing.
We have to understand the risks that synthetic organisms pose to the environment, what kinds of information are needed to support rigorous assessments, or who should collect such data (Dana, et al, 2012)
.- Pay attention in the differences between the function of natural and synthetic organisms and how it affect the interactions with the environment. Research in this area could, for instance, look for changes in a synthetic organism’s production of toxic substances or other harmful metabolites.
- Analyze if the escaped microorganisms have the hability to survive and compete with natural organisms, and how this will affect habitats or biodiversity.
- Another area of risk is gene transfer, is important to determine if synthetic organisms will pass on properties such as antibiotic resistance and this represent possible threats to human health.
We aim to apply the risk management approach to safety in the laboratory and this means to complete a risk assessment of this research project.
Safety forms were approved on: September 22, 2013 by Evan Appleton.
Safety: Risk Assessment
Organism Description
Escherichia coli is an Enterobacteria described by Bergey's Manual (1957). Escherichia is a Gram-negative rod which can be motile by peritrichous flagella or nonmotile. Because of its wide use as a model organism in research in microbial genetics and physiology, and its use in industrial applications, E. coli K-12 is one of the most extensively studied microorganisms.
Math
We developed a model for the characterization of the dynamic behavior of RNA thermometers. We propose some of the parameters of our model to be used as quantitative points of reference to help us understand and reliably compare the behavior of RNA thermometers.
Human Practices
We created and presented two major didactic exhibitions to massively educate the crowd about synthetic biology. We also organized the most innovative symposium of Biological Sciences in Latin America, with a strong focus on synthetic biology. We personally reached around 14, 000 people. Check it out.
Risk Assessment:Download here
