Team:Nanjing-China/Biosafety
Biosafety is the prevention of large-scale loss of biological integrity, focusing both on ecology and human health. These prevention mechanisms include conduction of regular reviews of the biosafety in laboratory settings, as well as strict guidelines to follow. Biosafety is used to protect us from harmful incidents. High security facilities are necessary when working with Synthetic Biology as there are possibilities of bioterrorism acts or release of harmful chemicals and or organisms into the environment. A complete understanding of experimental risks associated with synthetic biology is helping to enforce the knowledge and effectiveness of biosafety.
With the potential future creation of man-made unicellular organisms, some are beginning to consider the effect that these organisms will have on biomass already present. Scientists estimate that within the next few decades, organism design will be sophisticated enough to accomplish tasks such as creating biofuels and lowering the levels of harmful substances in the atmosphere. Scientist that favor the development of synthetic biology claim that the use of biosafety mechanisms such as suicide genes and nutrient dependencies will ensure the organisms cannot survive outside of the lab setting in which they were originally created. Organizations like the ETC Group argue that regulations should control the creation of organisms that could potentially harm existing life. They also argue that the development of these organisms will simply shift the consumption of petroleum to the utilization of biomass in order to create energy. These organisms can harm existing life by affecting the prey/predator food chain, reproduction between species, as well as competition against other species (species at risk, or act as an invasive species). Synthetic vaccines are now being produced in the lab. These have caused a lot of excitement in the pharmaceutical industry as they will be cheaper to produce, allow quicker production, as well enhance the knowledge of virology and immunology.
The organisms we are dealing with are B. subtilis 168, B. subtilis NCIB3610 and E. coli K12. All of them are in Risk Group 1 and can cause no disease in healthy adults. B. subtilis is the most studied gram-positive bacterium and a model organism in studying chromosome replication and cell differentiation. B. subtilis and substances derived from it have been evaluated by different authorities about their safe and beneficial use in food. For example, FDA stated that enzymes derived from it were in common use in food and that nontoxic and nonpathogenic strains of B. subtilis have been used in a variety of food applications. E. coli is the most studied and utilized bacteria in synthetic biology.
However, the engineered bacteria may be released into the real world. Although Bacillus subtilis is nontoxic and nonpathogenic, it is not appropriate to release them into the environment. So we plan to design an airtight container and totally enclosed process to control the engineered bacteria to escape into the environment.
As for the experiments, the experiments are mainly in the molecular level, so the risks are caused by the reagents we used. For example, we need to use EB for electrophoresis and man-made sewage containing lead, gold and uranyl. So we wear two layers of gloves when dealing with EB and strictly recycle the man-made sewage when dealing with it. After collecting and sterilizing, the bio- or chemical wastes will be recycled by professional chemical recycling staffs in our institute respectively. Before our research, we have asked each member to receive safety training through certain curriculum provided by our department. All of us have successfully acquired skills in waste disposal, accident prevention, fire procedures and cleanliness. During our research, we carried out experiments within the biosafety guidelines established by WHO. Each member strictly adhered to experimental procedures with appropriate personal protective equipment, such as lab coats and lab gloves.
The following figures show some of the facilities in our laboratory.
Fig. 1 The superclean bench in the lab.
Fig 2. Our instructor Peiqing Sun was guiding us to do experiments.
[2] James, Collins. Synthetic Biology: Bits and pieces come to life.[J]. Nature, 2012.