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Project Safety

This year’s project is about Clickable Outer Membrane Biosensors (COMBs). The sensor is designed to become an aptamer-based approach to a universal and modular biosensor platform. Because of its modularity, is has a broad range of applications.

Usage

Thanks to the platform technique, almost everyone can become a user of our project. For Policy Practices a couple The first worked out application is a system against the over usage of pesticides. In this case the bacteria will sense these disease markers and activates a pathway in the cell which produces pesticides. In this way no pesticides are used redundant and the environment will be less damaged. Another application is early diagnosis of Intestinal Cancer. Ideally, self-sustaining bacteria in the gut will be able to tell whether a person has colon cancer or not. Since the E.coli bacteria already naturally occur in the human intestines, it is ideal for diagnostic and treating purposes. Besides intestinal cancer, Q fever is also a disease which is investigated. Because its origin lies with animals, it would be a sensor for farmers to use to test if their animals are infected. A lot of stakeholders were contacted and interviewed and much of the reactions were positive.

Risks

The modularity of the sensor is one of the greater strengths of this sensor. It creates a lot of possibilities to solve many problems. The modularity however should also be assessed on certain risks. One of the main concerns for this modularity is, if it is possible to perform harm with this system. Synthetic biology creates a database of small bricks which can be used to assemble new applications. One of the main fears is that it becomes too easy to assemble of virulent or hazardous microorganism. To asses this risk a couple of important questions need to be answered. Such as is it possible for a person to turn this platform technique into a harmful device? How easily accessible are the parts to construct this device? If wanting to do harm is this possible?

Our sensor is expressed in the BioSafety level 1 E.coli K-12 strain. This strain cannot survive by itself outside the laboratory environment and is therefore not harmful. As extra precaution, the bacteria will be placed in a small enclosed device.

Information about the gel capsules!

The risk of our project is the misusage of the parts. Fortunately, the use of the protein OmpX in the design limits the rates of using the device to E.coli strains only as this protein is a naturally occurring in the membrane of E.coli. However, there are some harmful E.coli strains which can be used, but the danger already lies in the strains themselves. The possibility to turn the sensing device into a harmful product is very unlikely. The harmful symptoms of those strains are diarrhea and a fever. It usually passes in 5 to 7 days but sometimes an infection can be severe.

The modularity of the device is currently gained through the use of the clickable aptamers. The aptamers may be a potential risk as they are easily ordered. For the rest of the construct to order the proteins and DNA an institution is needed. This can only be done if the person who wants to do harm is included into an institution which has a license to work with GMO’s. The inside of the design can only produce a light and this is not harmful.

Harms and benefits

Some of the many stakeholders are already described by the application examples of our device. There are however much more people who can receive harms and benefits, because of its modularity. The benefits will mostly be for the users and also for the producing companies. Additionally, the owners of the patents of dual aptamers or split aptamers can make more money with their patents. The possible harm will come to the companies with the competitive sensors, because our sensor can make them unnecessary. However, this chance is not very large, because they can still be wanted as additional tests for their higher accuracy.

Disposal

The product needs to be collected as biological waste and be disposed of in the proper way. This includes sterilization. It is not possible to reuse our product itself, because the small device, in which our bacteria are kept, is too small.