"Safety First” is “Safety Always." - Charles M. Hayes

Safety

Safety for the public, environment and the biologist working in a GMO classified lab is important. When classifying a GMO its pathogenesis and ability to spread from one host to another are the two main focus points. Reference: World health organization, third edition, 2004 - Visited: 16.09.15. [WHO]

When added up they imply level of risk for a specific organism. The leveling ranges from 1 to 4, where one implies for an organism that has no pathogenesis towards humans and is unable to It is important for us a synthetic biologist’s to recognize a level of danger and act accordingly. In Denmark Arbejdstilsynet Reference: Arbejdstilsynet - Visited: 16.09.15. [Arbejdstilsynet] overlooks, the laws applying for a synthetic bio-lab, Reference: Lov om miljø og genteknologi - Visited: 16.09.15. [RetsInformation] and they live up to the criteria that has been set by WHO. Reference: World health organization, third edition, 2004 - Visited: 16.09.15. [WHO]

To create and test the Two-hybrid system we worked with E.coli K12 strains. When doing assembly mainly E.coli K12 MG1655. Then for testing our constructs E.coli K12 BTH101 was used. Both of this are non-pathogenic strains, MG1655 are categorized as Risk Group 1 having mutations in rpy, ilvG and rfb-50. It lacks colonization factors and is unable produce O antigen. Reference: E.coli Genome Project, University of Wisconsin - Visited: 16.09.15. [Genome]

NIH Guidelines for research involving - Visited: 16.09.15. [NIH] BTH101 has been optimized for the use of a bacterial two-hybrid system. It is deficient in adenylate cyclase and has a β-galactosidase reporter system incorporated into its genome. Reference: WO 2001073108 A2 - Patent - Visited: 16.09.15. [Google.Patents] BTH101 is like MG1655 in Risk group 1. List of strains, used in our project;

All our basic bricks arise form risk group 1 E.coli K12 strains. The targets for our peptide aptamers come from E.coli K12 MG1655. The scaffold protein human thioredoxin originate form Homo sapiens, and lacks its catalytic activity. The peptide aptamer library was synthesized at random therefore, we cannot guarantee one of the millions of possibilities will not be harmful or resemble a toxin. Because of this and according to the European-parliament 2009/41/EF article 4 paragraph 4; we are obligate to take make the highest risk assessment. Reference: The EU-parliaments directive 2009/41/EF - Visited: 16.09.15. [Eur-Lex] However, this assessment must be added up with the risk assessment of the E.coli strain used. Therefore, there is a low risk for the environment and a potential risk for the biologist, this assessment add up to a classification of Risk Group 2 following the Safety rules of the EU. Reference: Europa-parlementets og rådets direktiv 2009/41/EF - Visited: 16.09.15. [Eur-Lex]
Arbejdstilsynet - Visited: 16.09.15. [Arbejdstilsynet]

As written in the Biosafety management paragraph from WHO Reference: World health organization, third edition, 2004 - Visited: 16.09.15. [WHO] everyone working in a bio-lab must revive proper instructions of how to work with GMO. In the microbiology department for SDU Medical Laboratory Technician Simon Rose is the laboratory supervisor.