Team:Cornell/project/hprac/environment

From 2013.igem.org

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<h2 class="centered">Environmental</h2>
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<h2 class="centered">Environmental Impact</h2>
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<h3>Impact of Styrofoam</h3>
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<h3>Mycelium-Based Packaging vs. Current Products</h3>
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Although our research can be applied to a variety of industries, we chose to first focus on one of the top environmental issues of today: the pollution generated by Expanded Polystyrene Foam, commonly known as Styrofoam. The Environmental Protection Agency has identified Styrofoam as the fifth largest creator of waste. Over 14 million tons of polystyrene are produced globally each year. In one lifetime, we produce more polystyrene than 3.5 times the weight of all 7 billion people on earth. Even though the United States accounts for only 4.45% of this population, we are responsible for producing around 21% of the world’s polystyrene. Of these 3 million tons, 2.3 million end up in landfills, while the remainder finds its way to masses of water. Americans throw away 25 million Styrofoam cups a year, which is around 82 cups per person. When left in a landfill, Styrofoam takes over 500 years to degrade, composing at least 30% of every landfill in America. The material is even more environmentally hazardous when it reaches a marine environment. The foam breaks into small pieces that wildlife often mistakes for food. Because the material floats, it easily pollutes coasts and shorelines, making it the second most abundant type of beach debris.  
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Recent reports on polystyrene production demonstrate the increasing demand for environmentally friendly substitutes [1]. We hope to encourage this trend by facilitating improvements upon Ecovative's existing material. To compare the eco-friendly material to its competitors, we used a rubric created by the Colorado Mycological Society that encourages researchers to develop a biodegradable substitute to harmful disposable products [2]. The areas we researched include product toxicity, raw material toxicity, carbon footprint, biodegradability, and sustainability. Based on the following chart, it is clear that the environmental impact of the fungal product is negligible compared to that of current mainstream materials.  
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<img class="center" style="max-height:none" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/0/0a/CornellEnvironmentalImpact.png"/>
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By genetically engineering the fungi used in the material, we will make the manufacturing process more efficient and, as a result, decrease the energy required to make the product.  
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Over 200 cities across America have already banned the harmful substance. Most of these cities are located in the areas of California that border the Pacific Ocean. This year, Chicago began a “No Foam Chicago” campaign to pass similar legislation in the city. On February 14th, Bloomberg announced plans to ban the material in New York City. Soon after, the government of the state of Massachusetts made a similar proposal.  
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<h3>Comprehensive Environmental Assessment</h3>
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As scientists, we are often inclined to reduce complex procedures down to simple, step-by-step protocols. Assessing risk and evaluating environmental impact are no exception; our goal this year was to utilize a universal checklist that every environmental iGEM project could fulfill in order to ensure environmental safety, the idea being that we could easily and systematically find answers to questions of environmental safety in scientific literature. We followed the approach from our project last year: Comprehensive Environmental Assessment (CEA).
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As the public awareness of the negative impact of Styrofoam rapidly grows, so does the demand for an eco-friendly substitute. Current alternatives are more recyclable than Styrofoam. However, when tossed into a landfill or waterway, they cause similar environmental damage. Based on this fact, we believe our research will be most effective in this application.  
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CEA differs from traditional methods of risk assessment by recognizing that risk assessment is fundamentally a decision-making process in which scientists, experts, and the public should be engaged. The goal is to foster transparent discussion and use collective judgement to evaluate limitations and trade-offs in order to arrive at holistic conclusions about the primary issues that researchers should address in their research planning [3].
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<h3>Genetically Engineered Packaging vs. Current Products</h3>
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Recent reports on polystyrene production demonstrate the increasing demand for environmentally friendly substitutes. We hope to encourage this trend by improving upon Ecovative's existing material. To compare the eco-friendly material to its competitors, we used a rubric created by the Colorado Mycological Society that encourages researchers to develop a biodegradable substitute to harmful disposable products. The areas we researched include product toxicity, raw material toxicity, carbon footprint, biodegradability, and sustainability. Based on the following chart, it is clear that the environmental impact of the genetically engineered product is negligible compared to that of current mainstream materials.  
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****INSERT CHART****
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While the Environmental Protection Agency primarily uses the CEA approach for nano materials, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., launched efforts to lay out a framework to apply CEA to synthetic biology [4]. This groundbreaking project set out to assess the CEA approach's relevance to synthetic biology, in anticipation of the growing demand for synthetic biology-based solutions to global issues. They arrived at the conclusion that scientists should focus on four major areas of risk assessment: altered physiology, competition and biodiversity, evolutionary prediction, and gene transfer [5].
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By genetically engineering the fungi used in the material, we will make the manufacturing process more efficient and, as a result, decrease the energy required to make the product.
+
The Woodrow Wilson Center's Synthetic Biology Project recommended that CEA be applied to more developed projects that were approaching field deployment in order to evaluate it as a risk-assessment approach for synthetic biology at large. Our project is an ideal fit for such an assessment because our collaboration with Ecovative provides an opportunity for our genetically engineered products to be commercially implemented.
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<h3>CEA</h3>
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As scientists, we are often inclined to reduce complex procedures down to simple, step-by-step protocols. Assessing risk and evaluating environmental impact are no exception; our instinct this year was to continue building upon the universal checklist that every environmental iGEM project could fulfill in order to ensure environmental safety, the idea being that we could easily and systematically find answers to questions of environmental safety in scientific literature. We followed the approach from our project last year: Comprehensive Environmental Assessment (CEA).
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CEA differs from traditional methods of risk assessment by recognizing that risk assessment is fundamentally a decision-making process in which scientists, experts, and the public should be engaged. The goal is to foster transparent discussion and use collective judgement to evaluate limitations and trade-offs in order to arrive at holistic conclusions about the primary issues that researchers should address in their research planning.
+
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While the Environmental Protection Agency primarily uses the CEA approach for nano materials, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., launched efforts to lay out a framework to apply CEA to synthetic biology. This groundbreaking project set out to assess the CEA approach's relevance to synthetic biology, in anticipation of the growing demand for synthetic biology-based solutions to global issues. They arrived at the conclusion that scientists should focus on four major areas of risk assessment: altered physiology, competition and biodiversity, evolutionary prediction, and gene transfer.
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The Woodrow WIlson Center's Synthetic Biology Project recommended that CEA be applied to more developed projects that were approaching field deployment in order to evaluate it as a risk-assessment approach for synthetic biology at large. This is where we come in: can CEA be successfully used to evaluate the risks of releasing our genetically modified strains in the consumer market? What are its limitations?
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We began by attempting to apply the Synthetic Biology Project's modified guidelines for prioritizing research questions to our own project as it currently stands.
We began by attempting to apply the Synthetic Biology Project's modified guidelines for prioritizing research questions to our own project as it currently stands.
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<img class="center" style="max-height:none" src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/e/ed/CEA_flowchart.png"/>
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Above is a simplified schematic of our risk assessment approach, as adapted from the Woodrow Wilson Center. We hope that this framework will prove useful to other environmental iGEM teams in the future.
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<img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2013/e/ed/CEA_flowchart.png" />
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Performing a Comprehensive Environmental Assessment on this year's project allowed us to think about crucial future work necessary to make genetically engineered fungal materials suitable for use in the consumer market. Our two largest concerns with commercialization of our genetically engineered product were horizontal gene transfer and loss of biodiversity, and to lessen these concerns we focused a lot of our effort on preventative safety mechanisms.  When implemented, our <a href="https://2013.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/fungal_toolkit/biosafety#killswitch">kill switch</a> system would allow us to quickly initiate cell death. Successful implementation of the kill switch system would greatly decrease the chance that our fungal strain could outcompete other organisms and decrease biodiversity.  The <a href="https://2013.igem.org/Team:Cornell/project/wetlab/fungal_toolkit/biosafety#crelox">Cre-Lox</a> recombination system would allow us to remove any potentially harmful genes from the organism before its implementation.  We are most concerned with eliminating horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistance genes.  While these genes are necessary for the selection of transformed organisms, once such an organism is isolated, the gene is useless and potentially dangerous.  Utilizing the Cre-Lox recombination system on our transformed strains after selection but before market implementation would greatly decrease the chance of horizontal gene transfer. 
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Above is a simplified schematic of our risk assessment approach, as adapted from the Woodrow Wilson Center. We hope that this framework will prove useful to other environmental iGEM teams in the future.  
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While we are particularly concerned the safety of our project this year, our biosafety mechanisms can also be applied to any other fungal engineering project. Both our kill switch and Cre-Lox systems were designed to be modular and effective against any basidiomycete, no matter the application or species. The analysis of our project with the CEA revealed potential ethical and safety issues, which allowed us to effectively address potential concerns with the genetic engineering of fungi.  
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CEA allowed us to think about crucial future work for our project in order to make it suitable for use in the consumer market. However, in our interactions with environmental groups and small business owners, we encountered several important questions that were not built into the existing CEA framework.  
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<h3>References</h3>
<h3>References</h3>
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1. Banning Styrofoam | Clean Water Action. (n.d.). Clean Water Action. Retrieved September 23, 2013, from http://www.cleanwateraction.org/feature/banning-styrofoam
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1. PRNewswire. (2013, June 24). Global Expandable Polystyrene (EPS) Report: 2013 World Market Outlook and Forecast up to 2017 - WSJ.com. The Wall Street Journal - Breaking News, Business, Financial and Economic News, World News & Video - Wall Street Journal - Wsj.com. Retrieved September 23, 2013, from http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130624-907027.html
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2. New York Business. (2013, February 15). New Yorkers react to Bloomberg's plan to ban PS foam - News - Plastics News.Plastics News. Retrieved September 23, 2013, from http://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20130215/NEWS/130219931/new-yorkers-react-to-bloombergs-plan-to-ban-ps-foam
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3. Bans Across The US - working to ban styrofoam packaging in Chicago. (n.d.).No Foam Chicago. Retrieved September 23, 2013, from http://nofoamchicago.org/BansAcrossUS.html
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4. Zeller, P., & Zocher, D. (n.d.). Ecovative's Breakthrough Biomaterial. Colorado Mycological Society. Retrieved September 23, 2013, from www.cmsweb.org/articles/LR_Ecovative.pdf
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2. Zeller, P., & Zocher, D. (n.d.). Ecovative's Breakthrough Biomaterial. Colorado Mycological Society. Retrieved September 23, 2013, from <a href="cmsweb.org/articles/LR_Ecovative.pdf" target="_blank"> www.cmsweb.org/articles/LR_Ecovative.pdf</a>
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5. Dana, G. V., Kuiken, T., Rejeski, D., & Snow, A. A. (2012). Synthetic biology: Four steps to avoid a synthetic-biology disaster. Nature, 483. doi:10.1038/483029a
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3. Dana, G. V., Kuiken, T., Rejeski, D., & Snow, A. A. (2012). Synthetic biology: Four steps to avoid a synthetic-biology disaster. Nature, 483. doi:10.1038/483029a
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6. Powers, C. M., Dana, G., Gillespie, P., Gwinn, M. R., Hendren, C. O., Long, T. C., Wang, A., Davis, J. M. (2012). Comprehensive Environmental Assessment: A Meta-Assessment Approach. Environ. Sci. Technol., 46,9202−9208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es3023072
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4. Powers, C. M., Dana, G., Gillespie, P., Gwinn, M. R., Hendren, C. O., Long, T. C., Wang, A., Davis, J. M. (2012). Comprehensive Environmental Assessment: A Meta-Assessment Approach. Environ. Sci. Technol., 46,9202−9208. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es3023072" target="_blank">http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es3023072</a>
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7. Synthetic Biology Project. (2011, July 28). Comprehensive Environmental Assessment and Its Application to Synthetic Biology Applications. Retrieved from http://www.synbioproject.org/events/archive/cea/
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5. Synthetic Biology Project. (2011, July 28). Comprehensive Environmental Assessment and Its Application to Synthetic Biology Applications. Retrieved from <a href="http://www.synbioproject.org/events/archive/cea/" target="_blank"> http://www.synbioproject.org/events/archive/cea/</a>
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Latest revision as of 17:41, 6 November 2013

Cornell University Genetically Engineered Machines

Environmental Impact

Mycelium-Based Packaging vs. Current Products

Recent reports on polystyrene production demonstrate the increasing demand for environmentally friendly substitutes [1]. We hope to encourage this trend by facilitating improvements upon Ecovative's existing material. To compare the eco-friendly material to its competitors, we used a rubric created by the Colorado Mycological Society that encourages researchers to develop a biodegradable substitute to harmful disposable products [2]. The areas we researched include product toxicity, raw material toxicity, carbon footprint, biodegradability, and sustainability. Based on the following chart, it is clear that the environmental impact of the fungal product is negligible compared to that of current mainstream materials.

By genetically engineering the fungi used in the material, we will make the manufacturing process more efficient and, as a result, decrease the energy required to make the product.

Comprehensive Environmental Assessment

As scientists, we are often inclined to reduce complex procedures down to simple, step-by-step protocols. Assessing risk and evaluating environmental impact are no exception; our goal this year was to utilize a universal checklist that every environmental iGEM project could fulfill in order to ensure environmental safety, the idea being that we could easily and systematically find answers to questions of environmental safety in scientific literature. We followed the approach from our project last year: Comprehensive Environmental Assessment (CEA).

CEA differs from traditional methods of risk assessment by recognizing that risk assessment is fundamentally a decision-making process in which scientists, experts, and the public should be engaged. The goal is to foster transparent discussion and use collective judgement to evaluate limitations and trade-offs in order to arrive at holistic conclusions about the primary issues that researchers should address in their research planning [3].

While the Environmental Protection Agency primarily uses the CEA approach for nano materials, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., launched efforts to lay out a framework to apply CEA to synthetic biology [4]. This groundbreaking project set out to assess the CEA approach's relevance to synthetic biology, in anticipation of the growing demand for synthetic biology-based solutions to global issues. They arrived at the conclusion that scientists should focus on four major areas of risk assessment: altered physiology, competition and biodiversity, evolutionary prediction, and gene transfer [5].

The Woodrow Wilson Center's Synthetic Biology Project recommended that CEA be applied to more developed projects that were approaching field deployment in order to evaluate it as a risk-assessment approach for synthetic biology at large. Our project is an ideal fit for such an assessment because our collaboration with Ecovative provides an opportunity for our genetically engineered products to be commercially implemented.

We began by attempting to apply the Synthetic Biology Project's modified guidelines for prioritizing research questions to our own project as it currently stands. Above is a simplified schematic of our risk assessment approach, as adapted from the Woodrow Wilson Center. We hope that this framework will prove useful to other environmental iGEM teams in the future.

Performing a Comprehensive Environmental Assessment on this year's project allowed us to think about crucial future work necessary to make genetically engineered fungal materials suitable for use in the consumer market. Our two largest concerns with commercialization of our genetically engineered product were horizontal gene transfer and loss of biodiversity, and to lessen these concerns we focused a lot of our effort on preventative safety mechanisms. When implemented, our kill switch system would allow us to quickly initiate cell death. Successful implementation of the kill switch system would greatly decrease the chance that our fungal strain could outcompete other organisms and decrease biodiversity. The Cre-Lox recombination system would allow us to remove any potentially harmful genes from the organism before its implementation. We are most concerned with eliminating horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistance genes. While these genes are necessary for the selection of transformed organisms, once such an organism is isolated, the gene is useless and potentially dangerous. Utilizing the Cre-Lox recombination system on our transformed strains after selection but before market implementation would greatly decrease the chance of horizontal gene transfer.

While we are particularly concerned the safety of our project this year, our biosafety mechanisms can also be applied to any other fungal engineering project. Both our kill switch and Cre-Lox systems were designed to be modular and effective against any basidiomycete, no matter the application or species. The analysis of our project with the CEA revealed potential ethical and safety issues, which allowed us to effectively address potential concerns with the genetic engineering of fungi.

References

1. PRNewswire. (2013, June 24). Global Expandable Polystyrene (EPS) Report: 2013 World Market Outlook and Forecast up to 2017 - WSJ.com. The Wall Street Journal - Breaking News, Business, Financial and Economic News, World News & Video - Wall Street Journal - Wsj.com. Retrieved September 23, 2013, from http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130624-907027.html

2. Zeller, P., & Zocher, D. (n.d.). Ecovative's Breakthrough Biomaterial. Colorado Mycological Society. Retrieved September 23, 2013, from www.cmsweb.org/articles/LR_Ecovative.pdf

3. Dana, G. V., Kuiken, T., Rejeski, D., & Snow, A. A. (2012). Synthetic biology: Four steps to avoid a synthetic-biology disaster. Nature, 483. doi:10.1038/483029a

4. Powers, C. M., Dana, G., Gillespie, P., Gwinn, M. R., Hendren, C. O., Long, T. C., Wang, A., Davis, J. M. (2012). Comprehensive Environmental Assessment: A Meta-Assessment Approach. Environ. Sci. Technol., 46,9202−9208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es3023072

5. Synthetic Biology Project. (2011, July 28). Comprehensive Environmental Assessment and Its Application to Synthetic Biology Applications. Retrieved from http://www.synbioproject.org/events/archive/cea/