Team:Reading/Safety

Safety in iGEM

Safety is of paramount importance in Synthetic biology. People have always had concerns about the impact genetically modified organisms can have on the natural environment and on human health, and this concern rightly extends to the genetic modifications and synthetic functions engineered in synthetic biology. Much thought has already been put into safety in synthetic biology¹, and many biosafety measures which can be engineered into cells have been designed².

However, almost all of the literature on biosafety in synthetic biology focuses on E.coli. Here we shall consider the safety aspect of our project, and our use of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803.