Team:Paris Saclay

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• Team
• Project
• Lab work
• Interlab Study
• Human Practices
• Achievements

Project

To define our project, our team conducted research on previous iGEM projects on the one hand to familiarize with the spirit of the iGEM competition and on the other hand to measure the achievements made by previous teams. Very soon we realized that biosafety was a crucial aspect in the competition but often forsaken by teams due to lack of time or resources to conduct the requisite experiments.

Regarding to multiple issues and risks that may cause the accidental (or not) spread of a newly Genetically Engineered Organisms (GEO) synthesized in the environment, the reflection led us to design a Universal System of Biosafety, that could control the evolution of the newly generated machine if/when it interacts with uncontrolled environment. Thus, we would be able to ensure that the organism would not survive outside of the lab setting it was originally created.

The idea is to synthesize a bacterial system that could be controlled in vivo through changes we voluntarily introduced into its genome.

To materialize the concept, we have devised a modified E.coli bacterium to regulate its viability in different conditions. To achieve this, the idea is to act on different parameters :

Thermal: to allow our system to survive only in a restricted temperature range

Chemical: collaborating with chemists, we will be able to design a filter allowing only the nutrients and not the bacteria to pass through.

Once operational, the effectiveness of our system will be tested in a natural environment developed through our collaboration with ecologists.

Considering the risks that could be caused by the release of the GEO on Biomass, public health, but also from an ethical point of view, and taking into account the shortcomings noticed on this aspect, many possible applications can come out with our project in order to avoid various forms of environmental risks related to organisms generated by synthetic biology.

The ultimate goal is to set up a universal Biobrick capable of providing the needed control for the newly generated system and that could be used by future iGEM teams to obtain a genetically engineered safe machine.