Team:UNOTT/Safety

SAFETY:

Our work is very safe as it uses harmless fluorescent proteins that are well used and understood in research, in a safe host (E. coli TOP10) so there were no safety concerns to be flagged up.

All safety forms were completed for iGEM, as well as correct packaging and approval for sending live, freeze-dried cells to Groningen and Sheffield, as well as sending the dried DNA to iGEM for the submission deadline

This made us consider GM and safety in general, especially so as we talked to school children, local community and friends about what their concerns would be about a security system that utilises genetically modified bacteria. Their first question was always "is it safe"? So our most important feature of our system is that it is safe. It uses well characterised and understood components that should not pose a risk to the wider environment. In a world where GM was accepted, our system would not have any problems passing safety regulations as there are no hazardous parts involved.