For a proof-of-concept purpose, our Cre-lox system is intended to illustrate how recombinase can excise the gene of interest at a certain time we desire, starting with a simple DH10b E.coli bacteria that are easy to grow and safe to use in laboratory. We were inspired by the application of recombinases in eukaryotes where only a specific gene inside the cell was knocked out without harming the organismal cell per se.

Having received feedbacks from people joining our organized activities in Hong Kong Science Park, where majority is parents, it surprisingly shows that our samples view GMOs to be more safe if the genetically modified gene within an organism has been knocked out before the consumption. We, therefore, directed our focus on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).

The introduction of GMOs varies between countries in terms of regulation and stringency. In order to explore current GMOs in Hong Kong, we were introduced to the interview with Dr. Terence Lau, a biosafety expert from Hong Kong government. Dr. Lau shared with us the current regulation and control of GMOs. To our surprise, there is yet no measure in preventing or mitigating the risks of GMOs being accidentally released in Hong Kong. The government only emphasizes on the control of genetically modified organism in some products such as vaccine and GM papaya, but they cannot cover the examination of all GM crops. In addition, industries will take risk to benefit ratios into account before considering GMOs as their profit-based business. Throughout this interview, the issue raised has inspired us to pursue deeper into the application of Genetic Containment Strategy.

Furthermore, we looked up some past IGEM teams’ researches and ideas on how to make their construct safe prior to the release. Besides from the consideration of kill switch as their genetic containment strategy, there is no practical implementation and standardization of the strategy.

Genetic (Biological) Containment Strategy is a measure to safeguard recombinant DNA in microorganism such that it can only be used in lab experiment but not outside. If accidental release happens, growth of modified microbes and rDNA replication should be immediately inhibited.

On the other hand, biocontainment is a prevention of risk of genetically engineered microorganism (GEM) release by using physical containment. Due to the demand for scaling up GEM, biocontainment may not be sufficient to contain large scale of GEM. Thus, genetic safeguards can potentially prevent the escape of microbes from proliferating. (ref1)

Dr. Lau not only shared with us some knowledge regarding biosafety. He also raised questions concerning how we can achieve the purpose of knocking out in large population of cells.

We have considered using feedback loop to amplify signals such that sufficient receiver cells can be knocked out at time bound. The propagation of AHL signals can be simulated by modeling the rate of diffusion from the senders to the receivers and the rate of AHL being amplified again to affect peripheral cells. You may look for our modeling execution in the ‘Modeling’ section.

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