Team:Nagahama/Issues
Risk Assessment
Beyond the bench, our project contains a major question: It is Risk to commercialize the Flavorator. Our approach to this question, We carryed out the Risk Assessment of Flavorator. Risk I think the two exist. The first is the "health of human". If you want to save the E. coli and food together. There is a risk of E. coli adhere to food. It is likely to harm the health to eat it If you want to save the food in the terpene. To do this, there is a risk that the human body is affected by the toxicity of terpene. The second is the "Environment". Release of outside the laboratory of E. coli(Synthesizing the terpene) we think that there is a risk. That is, Terpene in the environment becomes more and more amount. MarA to there is a risk of increasing antibiotic resistance. That is, there is a risk that the environment organisms have multiple drug resistance. E. coli is a possibility that is released to the Outside of the laboratory. That is, When the nutrient source in Flavorator is replaced, there is a danger that recombinants would go outside. Because of these risks, we carryed out the measures and consideration. "health of human" We put filter between the E. coli and food. Filter, to completely separate the E. coli and food. Thus, a substance that filled in the box is the only antibacterial volatile substance. We discussed the toxicity of geraniol (terpene compounds). LD50 rat (oral), is 3600 mg / kg. Human LD50 is a 216000 mg / kg. (Body weight was assumed to be 60 kg) This amount does not fill in the box. Geraniol is a food additive. Thus, geraniol is safe. "Environment" Terpene is derived from a plant. Terpene is abundant in nature. Thus, Terpene is we think to be safe to be released into the natural world. About MarA. We put a filter between the E. coli and food. Filter, to completely separate the E. coli and food. Recombinants will not be released to the outside of the laboratory. Or,we change in bacteria other than E. coli.
We conducted discussion with experts.
We concluded as follows.( In addition to the above) Anything, overdose is a poison. (Etc: salt) Safety of terpene is good to think quantitatively. LD50 is quantitative thinking. Eating what has been found to be toxic are self-responsibility.(Etc: tobacco) When dealing with recombinants, it is based on the GM food. If you carry a recombinant, it must be based on the recombinant traffic rules. To reveal the concrete impact on the human body. Advantages of the recombinant. Recombinant is possible to keep out the required amount of the terpene. Therefore, terpene continue to fill in the box. However, disadvantages also exist. Recombinant is out of the laboratory is in danger We must deal with recombinant At this stage, the use of E. coli. However, if it is out of the laboratory. There is a danger that would change the ecosystem of bacteria.（Because of geraniol） As a countermeasure, we replaces the bacteria and the medium directly.( etc: deodorant) E. coli, it will be completely separated from the food. In the future, we will use the other bacteria. There are two ways. First, Bacteria is used that the there is no problem even if eaten by humans（(Etc: Lactobacillus, Bacillus subtilis var. natto) If you choose Lactobacillus. Lactobacillus not only maintain good digestion, Lactobacillus also synthetic geraniol. In overseas, there is also a culture of drinking perfume to body odor measures. The body odor changes in geraniol is great. However, we do experiments in model organisms. And, there is a need to make sure there is no expression of harmful genes. Second, We use bacteria that do'nt need to put a nutrient source. We use the photosynthetic bacteria. Because it can live in inorganic, there is no need to provide nutrients. Photosynthetic bacteria use in Flavorator, which was isolated from the food.