Safety in a Nutshell

Synthetic Biology is without doubt a field in which a series of ethical and safety related questions arise. There is a generalized concern for the use of GMOs on applications like food and health.Thus, it is necessary for anyone working with GMOs consider this kind of issues. Our team is no exception, the iGEM organization asks a set of questions related to the safety features of every team's project. These questions comprise the safety of the three main stakeholders: researchers, public, and environment. Given that our project involves the interaction of the GMOs with the human body at a certain extent, we carried out a thorough research of the safety related issues that our contrast agent could have on the patient and the environment. Aware that the general public might be reluctant to the idea of using bacteria within the human body for the visualization of tumours, we are currently working on a facts checking project. By doing this facts checks we aim to prove some of the most common beliefs related to synthetic biology and GMO's, as well as their use within the food and health industry, focusing mainly in those directly associated to our contrast agent. For further information of the fact check project checkout the human practices component of our wiki.

We divided our safety page into four main sections:

-Lab Safety -Public Safety -Environmental Safety -Biosafety Within iGEM

The first section focus, as the name indicates, on safety issues within the lab. We consider the protocols and regulations of lab work at the TU/e that concern the safety of the researchers, as well as working with microorganisms, our biobricks and the biosafety group.

The second section addresses the issues related to the misuse of our contrast agent and patient safety. Given the fact that our product is intended to be used within the human body, we make a great emphasis on patient safety.

The third section presents all aspects related to release of our GMOs into the environment, and any other aspects related to the latter.

Last but not least is our proposals for improving the biosafety and its awareness within the iGEM teams.